The Midwest pioneer, his ills, cures, & doctors - University Library ...
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^^iil!§SMlgSilil;lii;iliHiilin^^<br />
LIBRARY OF THE<br />
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS<br />
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN<br />
IN MEMORY OF<br />
STEWART S. HOWE<br />
JOURNALISM CLASS OF 1928<br />
STEWART S. HOWE FOUNDATION
THE<br />
MIDWEST PIONEER<br />
HIS ILLS, CUKES<br />
& DOCTORS
THE DOCTOR ON HORSEBACK
THE MIDWEST PIONEER<br />
HIS ILLS, CURES<br />
& DOCTORS<br />
By<br />
MADGE E. PICKARD<br />
and<br />
R. CARLYLE BULEY<br />
HENRY SCHUMAN<br />
New York<br />
1946
Copyright 1945<br />
by<br />
R. Carlyle Buley
Pb Z>^rr L<br />
hier<br />
K<br />
To the 'Pioneer Doctor who boldly jaced the<br />
wilderness; and to the Pioneer who bravely<br />
jaced the Doctor,<br />
^0
FOREWORD<br />
1 n t<strong>his</strong> book, first published in a Hmited edition in 1945,<br />
the authors have endeavored to render a brief, non-technical<br />
but substantial account of <strong>pioneer</strong> medicine in the<br />
Middle West. <strong>The</strong>y have found the subject quite interesting<br />
and believe that it has importance as a chapter in the social<br />
<strong>his</strong>tory of the region and period. <strong>The</strong>ir goal has been set somewhat<br />
short of that of the western doctor who, a century ago,<br />
launched a short-lived medical periodical with the intent<br />
"to treat of the general principles, laws, and phenomena of<br />
mind and matter: the world within us, and the world without<br />
us; commencing at the perfection of nature, or man;<br />
and travel down through all stages of animal existence.<br />
From man to brute life, from animal to plant, from plant<br />
to crystal, from crystal to clod, from intellect to feeling,<br />
from feeling to form, from form to shapeless matter; from<br />
the most inveterate disease to the mildest complaint; from<br />
the strongest remedy to soothing means, from simple to<br />
compound, from p<strong>ills</strong> to powders. We shall endeavor to<br />
follow the footsteps of nature through the nice, and ever<br />
descending scale of that which surrounds us."<br />
<strong>The</strong> older spellings have been used for Pittsburgh and<br />
Cleveland in contemporary references, and newspaper citations<br />
are to the titles which the papers carried at the time.<br />
Though documentation has been reduced to the barest<br />
essentials and the bibliography streamlined, it is hoped that<br />
enough remains to serve as a guide to the more curious or<br />
ambitious student of midwest medical <strong>his</strong>tory.<br />
Special thanks are due Mr. Paul Angle of the Chicago<br />
Historical Society, who permitted Dr. Carter's monumental<br />
work to leave <strong>his</strong> guardianship on divers occasions, and<br />
to Mr. R. E. Banta of Crawfordsville who did likewise with
that of Dr. Smith. <strong>The</strong> authors trust that these two <strong>doctors</strong><br />
and some of their contemporaries would in no wise be<br />
piqued at any pubKcity given their rather pecuHar and<br />
naive thoughts. After all, they brought it upon themselves.<br />
Bloomington, Indiana<br />
July, 1946.<br />
M. E. P.<br />
R. C. B.
"<br />
I. "HE'S AILIN'<br />
CONTENTS<br />
II. HOME REMEDIES AND DOMESTIC<br />
MEDICINE<br />
III. DOCTORS: BLEED, BLISTER, AND PURGE<br />
IV. "THE PEOPLE'S DOCTORS"<br />
V. MEDICAL ODDS: ANIMA TO ZOOTES<br />
VI. "WHO IS A DOCTOR"<br />
NIRVANA IN BOTTLES — DRUGS AND<br />
"PATENTS"<br />
NOTES<br />
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE<br />
VIL
"HES AILIN' jj<br />
CHAPTER I<br />
^^<strong>The</strong> dawn will break 7ipon us, and bright day shall go<br />
forth and shine; when we may hope to live with the dear<br />
objects of our love, until ripe and full of years, we shall<br />
be gathered to our fathers"<br />
— Dr. Samuel Robinson, Lecture IX,<br />
Cincinnati, 1829.<br />
X he <strong>pioneer</strong> wife was alone with her children. <strong>The</strong><br />
Indians around the cabin, though bent on grabbing hot<br />
bread rather than scalps, were getting out of hand. When<br />
one started to crawl through the cabin window, she cracked<br />
him on the skull with the wooden potato masher, pulled<br />
him on in, and barred the shutter. A while later a somewhat<br />
more sober Indian was pushed out the cabin door to<br />
find <strong>his</strong> companions. <strong>The</strong> wound and contusion on <strong>his</strong> head<br />
had been bathed in cold cider vinegar and neatly bound in<br />
a poultice of squirrel brains and crushed ginseng leaves.<br />
So well did the job meet with the Indians' approval that<br />
thereafter, when they more politely asked for the hot bread<br />
which was, next to liquor, their greatest weakness, there<br />
was much thumping of skulls and grunting laughter.<br />
A man was riding across the prairies one warm winter<br />
day, when the temperature began to fall precipitately.
Within a few hours it was well below zero. <strong>The</strong> rider was<br />
lightly clothed, and it was miles to the nearest house.<br />
Though he valued <strong>his</strong> horse, he valued <strong>his</strong> life more. When<br />
he felt himself beginning to freeze, he sacrificed the animal,<br />
gutted the carcass, crawled inside, and lived to tell the tale.<br />
A <strong>pioneer</strong> husband was called back to <strong>his</strong> cabin from<br />
the clearing where he worked to confront the emergency<br />
of a premature delivery. <strong>The</strong> six-year old daughter was<br />
dispatched through the woods to a neighbor's, but the trail<br />
was rough, and help was slow in coming. Relying upon<br />
common sense and <strong>his</strong> experience with cows and sheep, the<br />
farmer officiated at the birth of <strong>his</strong> first son.<br />
A doctor found <strong>his</strong> patient unable to deliver herself of<br />
child. Whatever was to be done had to be done quickly.<br />
In an unfloored and unchinked cabin, by the light of<br />
candles shielded by blankets to prevent their being blown<br />
out, with a case of ordinary pocket instruments he performed<br />
a successful Caesarian section, probably the first<br />
in<br />
the West.<br />
A strange young man stepped into the grocery filled with<br />
Irish canal laborers assembled around the w<strong>his</strong>key barrel.<br />
After a few minutes he announced that within three weeks<br />
one-fourth of those present would die of smallpox. Since<br />
there was no smallpox in the region, <strong>his</strong> statement was<br />
received with derision. But the smallpox came, and with<br />
it many deaths. Impressed with the accuracy of <strong>his</strong> own<br />
prediction— he did not know on exactly what grounds he<br />
had made it— the young man took up medicine and<br />
became a successful doctor.<br />
Isolated and exceptional incidents these, but incidents<br />
which had a habit of happening on the frontier in a period<br />
which, in the minds of many unsuspecting moderns, was<br />
characterized by "the simple life." From one viewpoint<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong> life was much more simple than life in the complicated<br />
industrial order of the twentieth century, with its<br />
many interdependent relationships and delicate balances,<br />
but on the other hand, to one who might be transferred<br />
from a modern farm of central Illinois or southern Michi-
gan to the same scene of a century and a quarter ago, the<br />
processes of getting the mere essentials of Hfe — food, shelter,<br />
clothes, and medicines— to say nothing of conveniences,<br />
travel, and amusements, would no doubt make Hfe<br />
seem infinitely complex. Water did not come from taps,<br />
food did not come from cans, nor did the doctor and<br />
ambulance respond to the telephone.<br />
As the <strong>pioneer</strong> advanced into the virgin forests and farreaching<br />
prairie lands of the Middle West he was faced<br />
with many problems. In the early days there was the<br />
Indian, ever a nuisance, sometimes a terror. For almost<br />
two centuries the Indian had been a part of the environment;<br />
the struggle with him was a conditioning factor as<br />
important as the climate, the topography, and the vast<br />
distances in determining the character of the American<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was the task of chopping, grubbing, and hewing<br />
a home out of the wilderness, of getting enough food to<br />
carry life through the early years, of creating a domestic<br />
economy which would make that home in a large measure<br />
self-sufficing.<br />
In time came the necessity of acquiring title<br />
to land; of laying hands on enough money to pay for it.<br />
Obtaining cash required means of getting produce to markets—roads,<br />
boats, canals, railroads—the business of transportation.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was the need for governments, local and<br />
state; of men and money to run them; of schools, lest the<br />
next generation grow up savage and ignorant. In addition,<br />
seriously weighing on the minds of many, was the incubus<br />
of the devil and all <strong>his</strong> works, matters not so much of t<strong>his</strong><br />
life as of the next.<br />
More basic than any of these problems, however, was<br />
that of health. Unless the settler survived, all other problems<br />
were relegated into insignificance; he simply never got<br />
around to them. Although nothing was more vital in the<br />
conquest of the wilderness than health, over none of the<br />
factors involved did the people seemingly have less control.<br />
Just as first settlers at Jamestown and Plymouth suffered<br />
heavily from the diseases of a new environment, so did the
10<br />
whites who reached the Mississippi Valley. French explorers,<br />
fur traders, and the habitans around Detroit and Vincennes<br />
became familiar with the diseases of the region. <strong>The</strong><br />
Jesuit missionaries recorded summer illnesses among the<br />
Indians around the missions: they connected them with the<br />
eating of new corn, squashes, and watermelons. Sometimes<br />
it was "a malignant fever, of the purple kind." At Fort<br />
Miami in 1749 the twenty-two French inhabitants, including<br />
the commandant, had the fever.<br />
British and Americans had similar experiences. George<br />
Morgan, Philadelphia merchant, western trader, and ambitious<br />
empire builder, wrote from the Illinois country in<br />
1766: "Ague & Fever has been remarkably prevalent—<br />
Insomuch that of the Garrison & Inhabitants of Fort<br />
Chartres & Kaskaskia few have escaped being more or less<br />
afflicted therewith & altho 'tis not in itself Mortal yet the<br />
frequency of it must be the Occasion of other Disorders<br />
that are so— Insomuch that not a<br />
single Person Male or<br />
Female born at the Illinois of Parents of fifty Years of Age<br />
& very few of Forty—Neither has there been any French<br />
Native of the Country known to have lived to an old<br />
Age. . .<br />
." Again in 1768: "every officer & almost every<br />
private Man, have been most Violently attacked with a<br />
Feaver—For want of Experience—Attention & Attendance,<br />
they were brought to a Most distressed Situation. . . .<br />
<strong>The</strong>y cintinued helthy until about the 20th of September,<br />
When they Were Attack'd by twentys in a day & so<br />
severely that in the Course of about a Week there was but<br />
Nineteen Men capable of Duty at Fort Chartris & every<br />
Officer was ill at the same Time. . . . <strong>The</strong> Groans & cries<br />
of the Sick Was the only Noise to<br />
be heard within the<br />
Fort. . . . <strong>The</strong> Febrifuge you so warmly recommended<br />
will do very well from t<strong>his</strong> till May next. When each of<br />
Us may expect to be attack'd in Turn." And George<br />
Butricke, garrison officer, writing on October 30, 1768,<br />
said: "in 3 days time there was not one Commissioned<br />
Officer, non Commissioned or Private man But one Sergt.<br />
1 Corpl. and about nine men but what was seized in the
same manner. . . . We<br />
11<br />
liave now sent to the Grave three<br />
Officers, twenty five men Twelve "Women and fifteen<br />
Children, since the 29th Sept. and many more in a Very<br />
dangerous way, tho' I am in hopes the could Wether will<br />
soon help us." In 1789 Major Hamtramck wrote to General<br />
J. Harmar of the Vincennes garrison: "forty nine men are<br />
t<strong>his</strong> day sick with the intennitting fever. ..." Years later<br />
Dr. B. G. Farrar, prominent early St. Louis physician, said<br />
he could distinguish the inhabitants of the American Bottom<br />
lowland on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, by their<br />
pale faces.<br />
In the 1790's and early 1800's, as the settlers moved into<br />
Kentucky and the Ohio country, in addition to the familiar<br />
diseases of smallpox, measles, and scarlatina, they began to<br />
For the latter<br />
suffer from epidemic fevers and influenzas.<br />
they blamed the "unhealthiness" of the climate. In 1807<br />
an epidemic of malarial fever swept the Ohio Valley.^<br />
"It ought not to be concealed that . . . there are many<br />
sick people; and we believe that there are many situations,<br />
some of which have been noticed, that may properly be<br />
denominated sickly . . .<br />
," wrote David Thomas, botanist<br />
and traveller, of the Wabash country in 1816. He listed<br />
the prevailing <strong>ills</strong> as bilious, intermittent, and remittent<br />
fevers, with some liver complaints.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> principal objection I have to t<strong>his</strong> country is its<br />
unhealthiness the months of August and September are<br />
generally very sickly," wrote Gershom Flagg in 1819 from<br />
Edwardsville, Illinois, after he had been ill of fever and<br />
ague for two months; and he decided, if another season did<br />
not bring improvement, to sell out and leave the country.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Edwardsville Spectator in 1820 announced that its<br />
hands had been so disabled by the influenza that it would<br />
issue only half a sheet. "Forerunner" and "Old Rustic"<br />
wrote long communications in which they advocated that<br />
m<strong>ills</strong> be closed and the dammed-up waters be released during<br />
summer to eliminate the stagnant-water effluvia which<br />
caused the common bilious fevers. But Morris Birkbeck,<br />
prominent English settler and large-scale farmer, reasoned
12<br />
that t<strong>his</strong> would only make things worse, as effluvia rose from<br />
the mud rather than from the water. Another dry season<br />
in 1834— no rain to speak of from April to September and<br />
temperatures from 90° to 103° — resulted in much sickness<br />
in southern Illinois. Conditions remained much the<br />
same for years.<br />
Around the recently established town of Indianapolis<br />
toward the end of the summer and during the fall of 1821<br />
epidemic intermittent and remittent fevers and agues<br />
assailed the people to such an extent that the few unafflicted<br />
were employed night and day ministering to the sufferers,<br />
and one-eighth of the population was swept away. Dr.<br />
Samuel G. Mitchell reported from Indianapolis in 1822<br />
that "Out of one thousand souls in town on the donation<br />
and the farms surrounding the town, at least nine hundred<br />
sickened during the prevailing epidemic." At Vevay, Indiana,<br />
where a rapid influx of settlers resulted in two or three<br />
families occupying a single house, one in six of the inhabitants<br />
died of bilious fevers during the summer and fall of<br />
1820. <strong>The</strong> next autumn the sluggish, green, putrid waters<br />
of the Wabash and White rivers affected towns in Indiana<br />
and Illinois. "<strong>The</strong> situation of t<strong>his</strong> town is at present truly<br />
deplorable," wrote the Vincennes Western Sun. "Nearly<br />
one-third of the population appears to be confined on beds<br />
of sickness, while the houses of the humane farmers in the<br />
vicinity are crowded with our fugitive convalescents."<br />
Dr. Asahel Clapp of New Albany reported in 1823 that<br />
"Last season has been unprecedented in the annals of the<br />
Western States for malignant diseases." For fifty years<br />
after their first settlement the river towns along the Ohio<br />
and the Wabash suffered from malarial diseases.<br />
In the middle 1830's the people of Elkhart County had<br />
an epidemic of typhoid and pneumonia and in 1838 almost<br />
half the population was affected with bilious disorders. <strong>The</strong><br />
wave of erysipelas which enveloped the whole Northwest<br />
in the early 1840's struck Indiana with imusual severity.<br />
Dysentery, scarlatina, pht<strong>his</strong>is (consumption), pneumonia,<br />
bronchitis, occasionally yellow and spotted fevers, whoop-
ing cough, and diphtheria appeared in many parts of the<br />
state. <strong>The</strong> summer of 1838 was a bad one, and "the afflicting<br />
dispensations of Providence" laid many low along the<br />
Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois and lakes Michigan and Erie.<br />
Again in 1845 came a "disastrous and melancholy sickly<br />
season" in the West; the South Bend St. Joseph Valley<br />
Register noted that it was the seventh year from the last<br />
bad outbreak, as if that explained it.<br />
In Michigan as soon as the land was plowed up and "the<br />
malarial gases set free, that country became very sickly. . . .<br />
Crops went back into the ground, animals suffered for<br />
food, and if the people had not been too sick to need much<br />
to eat they, too, must have gone hungry. <strong>The</strong> pale, sallow,<br />
bloated faces of that period were the rule; there were no<br />
healthy faces except of persons just arrived," said an old<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong> in whose family ten had been laid low with fevers<br />
at one time. In Detroit in the autumns of 1819, 1823, and<br />
1826 bilious diseases were very prevalent. Filth in the<br />
streets and the fact that drinking water was scooped up<br />
from the lake shore were partly blamed. As late as 1839<br />
whole villages were at times laid out temporarily, but<br />
after a few days people would crawl about like yellow<br />
ghosts, fortunate if they got enough to eat, for appetites<br />
were ravenous though food digested little more easily than<br />
stones.<br />
13<br />
''Don't go to Michigan, that land of <strong>ills</strong>;<br />
<strong>The</strong> word -means ague, fever and ch<strong>ills</strong>."<br />
In Ohio, too, generally prevailed the most distressing<br />
sickness and great mortality, particularly from bilious<br />
fevers and cholera morbus.^ Said James Kilbourne, prominent<br />
Ohio journalist and legislator: "Respecting the healthfulness<br />
of t<strong>his</strong> country, I have to repeat that it is in fact<br />
sickly in a considerable degree." He reported the presence<br />
in 1800 of bilious fever which returned with more violence<br />
the following year: "Almost all were sick, both in towns<br />
and country, so that it became difficult, in many instances,
14<br />
to get tenderers for the sick. In many instances whole<br />
famihes were down at a time and many died. . . . What<br />
seems strange to me is that the Indians who were natives<br />
of the country are as subject to the disorder as the whites.<br />
Of the few who remain in the territory some are now sick<br />
with it and they say it has always been so, and that they<br />
have often been obliged to move back from the meadows<br />
and bottoms where they always lived, into the woods and<br />
uplands during the sickly season to escape it."<br />
<strong>The</strong> autumn of 1819 in Ohio was particularly bad along<br />
the Scioto River bottoms, "whence deleterious exhalations<br />
arise." "<strong>The</strong> angel of disease and death, ascending from <strong>his</strong><br />
oozy bed, along the marshy margin of the bottom grounds<br />
. . . floats in <strong>his</strong> aerial chariot, and in seasons favorable to<br />
<strong>his</strong> prowess, spreads mortal desolation as he flies," mourned<br />
the Portsmouth Scioto Telegraph in 1820. In 1821, "even<br />
in the memory of the oldest Indian, so unhealthy a season<br />
was never known here before," reported the Piqua Gazette.<br />
Of the one hundred sixty-five thousand people in the seventeen<br />
counties within a radius of fifty miles of Columbus,<br />
more than one-half were sick in September, 1823. "<strong>The</strong><br />
most extravagant imagination can hardly picture desolation<br />
greater than the reality." Actual conditions substantiated<br />
political desires when the Steubenville Gazette and<br />
the Zanesville MtisJungiun Messenger called for removal of<br />
the capital to Zanesville. At Cleveland in 1827 there was<br />
perhaps more fever and ague than at any time since its<br />
first settlement. Almost twenty years later (1846) a northern<br />
Indiana paper reported in October that western Virginia,<br />
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois "have been shaking worse<br />
than we have the past season. <strong>The</strong>y must have a good<br />
time of it."<br />
On the whole, newspapers were reluctant to report sickness<br />
in their own localities; it was usually somewhere else.<br />
Land sale promotions and local pride required rather the<br />
"puffing" of that particular climate for "healthiness";<br />
ordinarily it was claimed to be quite "salubrious." As early<br />
as 1802 James Kilbourne had reported favorably to the
15<br />
Scioto Land Company regarding the "healthfulness of the<br />
country." <strong>The</strong> September 2, 1825, Illinois Intelligencer<br />
stated that "Tlie clamor which exists abroad about the<br />
sickliness of Illinois is entirely unfounded. Prejudices have<br />
arose against our town [Vandalia] even by the citizens of<br />
the state, on account of its heahh, but we have no hesitation<br />
in saying, that it is entirely unjustifiable." <strong>The</strong> Miltvaukee<br />
Sentinel of October 9, 1838, boasted that, notwithstanding<br />
the fact that the season had been bad in most<br />
sections, Wisconsin had no prevailing diseases. "Physicians<br />
say that our Territory is distressingly healthy." Both the<br />
Sentinel and the Green Bay Wisconsin Democrat attacked<br />
the Chicago 'Democrat for including Wisconsin in the sick<br />
belt. <strong>The</strong>y reported that canal work had been suspended<br />
in Illinois and Indiana, that the people were much too sick<br />
to harvest crops, and that there was nothing that looked<br />
like life, even in the populous towns. <strong>The</strong> Daily Chicago<br />
American, May 2, 1839, declared that "the whole West<br />
was unusually sickly" the preceding fall, that Michigan,<br />
Ohio, and Indiana suffered most, but that Illinois was<br />
affected only among the Irish laborers along the canal lines.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were those who felt that the habits of the settlers<br />
were as much to blame for prevailing illness as the environment.<br />
James Hall of Vandalia, in years to come to be the<br />
West's most famous <strong>his</strong>torian and advocate, took t<strong>his</strong> view.<br />
In <strong>his</strong> address at the first meeting of the Illinois Antiquarian<br />
and Historical Society in 1827 he stated that the <strong>pioneer</strong>'s<br />
exposure to the weather, <strong>his</strong> food — too much meat and not<br />
enough fresh vegetables, excessive use of ardent spirits, and<br />
lack of attention to simple diseases, v/ere more responsible<br />
than the climate.<br />
Early in the century the Medical Repository had commented<br />
on the eating and drinking habits of Americans:<br />
"<strong>The</strong> inhabitants are almost constantly in a state of repletion,<br />
by stuffing and cramming, and by the use of stimulating<br />
drink. <strong>The</strong> consumption of animal food is probably<br />
much greater in the Fredonian [United] states, than in any<br />
other civilized nation; and it ought likewise to be observed,
16<br />
that the quantity of ardent spirits drank by our people,<br />
exceeds every thing of the kind, that the world can produce;<br />
the appetite for inebriating drink seems to be increasing<br />
and insatiable."<br />
And years later, after long and varied observation, Dr.<br />
Daniel Drake concluded that "As a general fact, the people<br />
of the Valley [Mississippi] eat too much. ... I cannot<br />
attempt to enumerate on the vicious modes of cooking."<br />
By the same authority, alcoholic intemperance seriously<br />
affected the stomach, liver, and lungs, caused swelling of<br />
the feet, sore eyes, epileptic convulsions, and even leprosy.<br />
Worse than all t<strong>his</strong>, there was always the chance of spontaneous<br />
combustion, to which intemperance predisposed<br />
the body. "On t<strong>his</strong> point facts have multiplied, until the<br />
most incredulous inquirer can scarcely retain <strong>his</strong> doubts.<br />
<strong>The</strong> bodies of corpulent inebriates, when asleep, have, in<br />
several instances, taken fire, by the accidental contact of a<br />
burning coal or candle, and all the soft parts have been<br />
reduced to ashes, or driven o.ff in clouds of thick smoke.<br />
To conceive of the possibility of t<strong>his</strong> revolting catastrophe,<br />
we need only recollect the combustible nature of fat, and<br />
the still more inflammable quality of ardent spirits, which<br />
is composed of the very same materials; and which, being<br />
swallowed, daily, in excessive quantities, with reduction of<br />
food, may be presumed to alter, to a certain degree, the<br />
chemical composition of the body. Meanwhile its vital<br />
powers become greatly reduced, and thus render it an easier<br />
prey to fire or other external agents." Considering the<br />
number of <strong>pioneer</strong>s who took no specific precautions<br />
against t<strong>his</strong> ailment, the number of deaths recorded as a<br />
result of the "revolting catastrophe" is exceedingly small.<br />
Of all the <strong>ills</strong> to which the new country was heir, the<br />
ague was the most common. So nearly inescapable was it<br />
that many refused to regard it as a disease, but considered<br />
it, like hard work, a concomitant of the frontier. "He ain't<br />
sick, he's only got the ager," was the usual view. <strong>The</strong><br />
symptoms were unmistakable: yawnings and stretching, a<br />
feeling of lassitude, blueness of the fingernails, then little
17<br />
cold sensations which increased until the victim's teeth<br />
chattered in <strong>his</strong> jaws and he "felt like a harp with a thousand<br />
strings." As the ch<strong>ills</strong> increased, the victim shivered<br />
and shook "like a miniature earthquake." After an hour<br />
or so warmth returned, then gradually merged into raging<br />
heat with racking head pains and aching back. <strong>The</strong> spell<br />
ended with copious sweating and a return to normal.<br />
As a veteran sufferer described it:<br />
"You felt as though you had gone through some sort of<br />
collision, thrashing-machine or jarring-machine, and came<br />
out not killed, but next thing to it. You felt weak, as<br />
though you had run too far after something, and then<br />
didn't catch it. You felt languid, stupid and sore, and was<br />
down in the mouth and heel and partially raveled out.<br />
Your back was out of fix, your head ached and your appetite<br />
crazy. Your eyes had too much white in them, your<br />
ears, especially after taking quinine, had too much roar in<br />
them, and your whole body and soul were entirely woebegone,<br />
disconsolate, sad, poor, and good for nothing. You<br />
didn't think too much of yourself and didn't believe that<br />
other people did, either; and you didn't care. You didn't<br />
quite make up your mind to commit suicide, but sometimes<br />
wished some accident would happen to knock either the<br />
malady or yourself out of existence. You imagined that<br />
even the dogs looked at you with a kind of selfcomplacency.<br />
You thought the sun had a kind of sickly<br />
shine about it.<br />
About t<strong>his</strong> time you came to the conclusion<br />
that you would not accept the whole state of Indiana as a<br />
gift; and if you had the strength and means, you picked<br />
up Hannah and the baby, and your traps, and went back<br />
'yander' to 'Old Virginny,' the 'Jerseys,' Maryland or<br />
Tennsylvany.' "<br />
In 1836 it was said that members of one family in the<br />
Illinois country shook so severely that the workmen were<br />
frightened from their task of shingling the cabin roof.<br />
A Wisconsin <strong>pioneer</strong> frankly admitted that when he went<br />
to that place he "had a wholesome fear of two things: fever<br />
and ague and rattlesnakes." An early settler in the Michi-
18<br />
gan Territory "shook so that the dishes rattled on the<br />
shelves against the log wall." <strong>The</strong>re it was even reported<br />
that an Indian dog had the malady, the cattle were said to<br />
lean against the fence and shake, and children were born<br />
with it.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were different kinds of ague—dumb ague, shaking<br />
ague, chill fever— and variations. Some sufferers had<br />
the combined ch<strong>ills</strong> and fever each day, or on alternate<br />
days, or even every third day; others had the ch<strong>ills</strong> one day<br />
and the fever the next. Whichever brand was "favored,"<br />
it<br />
was regular, but, like the moon, a bit later each day it<br />
appeared, and often came back in season for years until a<br />
sort of immunity was established. Work schedules were<br />
fixed to accommodate the fits. <strong>The</strong> justice arranged the<br />
docket to avoid the sick day of the litigant; the minister<br />
made <strong>his</strong> appointments in keeping with the shakes; the<br />
housewife hurried through her morning chores, then sat<br />
down to await her visitor; and even the sparking swain<br />
reckoned the ager schedule of self and intended. Neither<br />
a wedding in the family nor a birth or death would stop<br />
the shakes.^ Travellers were almost unanimous in noting<br />
the sallow and jaundiced complexions of the Westerners.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ague and malarial diseases were usually classified by<br />
the <strong>doctors</strong> as autumnal fevers. Types and names varied.<br />
Dr. Daniel Drake's classification is as good as any. Under<br />
that heading in <strong>his</strong> Diseases of the Interior Yalley of North<br />
America he listed: intermittent fever, simple, and inflammatory;<br />
malignant intermittent fever; remittent fever;<br />
malignant remittent fever; and protracted, relapsing, and<br />
vernal intermittent fevers. Together with the geography,<br />
causes, and consequences he gave eleven chapters and one<br />
hundred eighty-two pages of t<strong>his</strong> treatise to the subject.<br />
Perhaps to make t<strong>his</strong> fever matter clear we should quote<br />
Dr. William Daily of Louisville, on types and courses:<br />
^'Continued: very slight evening exacerbations, and<br />
morning remissions. Total absence of remissions and exacerbations<br />
very rare, if ever.
"Remitting: prominent and regular remissions and<br />
exacerbations.<br />
"Intermitting:<br />
19<br />
regular paroxyms and perfect intermissions.<br />
"One paroxysm, with its intermission, constitutes its<br />
revolution. According to the duration of the revolution,<br />
fevers are divided into:<br />
Quotidian, occupying 24 hours.<br />
Tertiait, do. 48 do.<br />
Quartan, do. 72 do.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> for7n which fevers assume in t<strong>his</strong> respect is<br />
called<br />
their type. <strong>The</strong>re are, therefore, three principal types: /. e.,<br />
the quotidian, the tertian, and the quartan types. Quotidians<br />
generally come on in the morning; tertians about noon;<br />
and quartans in the afternoon.<br />
"Tertians divided into simple and double.<br />
"Double tertians: paroxysms occur daily; but the paroxysms<br />
of the alternate days are similar in violence, time<br />
of occurrence, and duration, and differ in these respects<br />
from those which occur on the intervening days.<br />
"Intermittents rarely are of the double tertian type,<br />
from their commencement: they generally commence as<br />
simple tertians, and duplicate their type afterwards; the<br />
new or accessory paroxysms generally milder than the original;<br />
double tertians generally return to the simple type,<br />
before they terminate; a change from the simple to the<br />
double type, is unfavorable.<br />
tertiana duplicata;<br />
"Other variety of compound types:<br />
haemitritoeus; — tertiana triplex.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> quartan type is also susceptible of duplication. <strong>The</strong><br />
double quartan has two paroxysms every fourth day.<br />
Authors mention triple quartans, three paroxysms occurring<br />
on every fourth day— these are very uncommon. <strong>The</strong><br />
difficulty of arresting the course of an intermittent, in<br />
general, is proportionate to the time occupied by each<br />
paroxysm.<br />
"Intermittents are said to be anticipating, when the paroxysm<br />
comes on earlier every succeeding recurrence— and
20<br />
When the<br />
postponingy when it occurs later at each return.<br />
paroxysm is postponed to about eight o'clock in the<br />
evening, it frequently does not come on until the next<br />
morning. In like manner, the paroxysm of an anticipating<br />
ague, occurring at eight o'clock in the morning, will have<br />
its next paroxysm on the evening of the day preceding that<br />
on which it should happen. (Wilson.) Favorable, when the<br />
paroxysms are postponed; unfavorable when anticipated.<br />
^'Attypic, or erratic fevers: no regular type; rheumatism<br />
—catarrhal fever.'"*<br />
<strong>The</strong> fact that he was confronted with so many interesting<br />
possibilities no doubt consoled the sufferer when he<br />
began the misery of the shakes.<br />
Milk sickness or '^Morbo Loacteo" was also encountered<br />
in many localities. Pioneers called it the milk sick; it was<br />
also known as sick stomach, the trembles, the slows, and<br />
puking fever. <strong>The</strong> usual symptoms were irregular respiration,<br />
cold and clammy skin, subnormal temperature, constipation,<br />
and bloated abdomen. <strong>The</strong> patient would be<br />
overcome with weakness and prostration of the voluntary<br />
muscles, then came nausea, and finally a comatose condition<br />
with periods of agonizing pain— or as the botanic<br />
Dr. H. T, N, Benedict, editor of the Medical Investigator,<br />
described it in 1847: "ungovernable thirst, great prostration,<br />
hiccup, stupor, etc., etc., death."<br />
Not much was known about t<strong>his</strong> disease. It had first<br />
been noticed by travellers in the West in the early 1800's.<br />
Dr. Drake was studying and writing about milk sickness<br />
in the period 1810-15. <strong>The</strong> chairman of a Kentucky Senate<br />
committee appointed to study the disease sent out in<br />
1827 a questionnaire of twenty-four items—concerning<br />
its prevalence, who got it, causes, <strong>cures</strong> if any, and percentage<br />
of death— and editors were requested to copy and<br />
circulate. Residents of Dearborn County, Indiana, were<br />
actively seeking the solution to the mystery during the<br />
1840's and 1850's,^ Many articles on it appeared in the<br />
medical journals of the West during the period.<br />
<strong>The</strong> disease affected both cattle and persons and was
endemic rather than epidemic. Chickens which ate the<br />
flesh of milk-sick animals also became affected. "Buzzards<br />
eating the diseased flesh often die and some of them lose<br />
the power of flying for some days. One of my dogs having<br />
partaken of diseased beef, run after a rabit across the flield,<br />
and then fell down and died; another dog died in the same<br />
way, whilst in pursuit of a hog," wrote John Miller of<br />
Goose Creek, Tennessee.<br />
Since the symptoms of milk sick were so similar to those<br />
21<br />
of arsenic poisoning, one explanation offered was that<br />
spring water absorbed the poison from arsenical iron<br />
pyrites. Other theories explained the trouble as due to<br />
vegetable poisoning, conveyed through milk or flesh of<br />
domestic animals.^ Dr. Drake rather inclined to blame the<br />
marsh exhalations. Indian <strong>doctors</strong>, folk curists, regular<br />
physicians, and botanies were alike helpless in the face of<br />
the milk sickness. Calomel and bleeding proved as futile<br />
as Lobelia No. 6 or the powerful dilutions of the homeopaths.<br />
At times whole communities were so seriously<br />
depleted that the remaining inhabitants contemplated<br />
moving on to safer regions.<br />
<strong>The</strong> milk sickness bafiled not only the <strong>pioneer</strong>, but continued<br />
to worry the scientist until the 1920's. When finally<br />
traced to its source, it was found that some of the <strong>pioneer</strong>s<br />
had been warm on the scent when they suspected certain<br />
poisonous plants which their cattle ate. Among the chief<br />
offenders were white snakeroot and jimmyweed or rayless<br />
goldenrod; the former was present in the Ohio Valley.<br />
<strong>The</strong> poison is tremetol. Even today there are no fairly<br />
certain antidotes.^<br />
When the settler moved West he did not leave behind<br />
him the afflictions of the older communities. <strong>The</strong> usual<br />
diseases, contagious and otherwise, migrated with him,<br />
appeared in varying degrees of severity, but were probably<br />
no more prevalent in the West than in the older settlements.<br />
Scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, mumps, and<br />
smallpox were seldom long absent from any settlement;<br />
often they were epidemic. Erysipelas, sometimes called
22<br />
Black Tongue, was epidemic at different times, as was<br />
influenza. Skin eruptions of a severe nature were not<br />
uncommon and spread throughout whole settlements,<br />
respecting neither age, sex, color, social position, nor creed.<br />
In Michigan one disorder was dignified with the name of<br />
"Michigan rash," but when an outsider noticed the naturalness<br />
of the motions of the afflicted<br />
and suggested brimstone<br />
and lard, some were unkind enough to call it the<br />
"seven years' itch."<br />
Pneumonia, or "lung fever," attacked many people in<br />
winter, but many believed that it was milder in form during<br />
the days of cabins and fireplaces than later when tighter<br />
houses and stoves came into general use. Quite a few children<br />
died from the croup, or "bold hives." Rheumatism<br />
and attendant troubles were common as one would expect<br />
from the <strong>pioneer</strong>s' exposure to all kinds of weather, the<br />
practice of allowing wet clothing to dry on the body, and<br />
perhaps in part to neglected teeth, tonsils, and other local<br />
infections.<br />
Typhoid epidemics came and went and no doubt took a<br />
heavy toll of lives, but since nothing much was known<br />
concerning the cause or spread of t<strong>his</strong> disease, little<br />
attention<br />
was paid to it by physicians prior to about 1845.<br />
Dr. A. A. Benezet in <strong>his</strong> Family Physician listed typhoid<br />
as typhus fever. Dr. John C. Gunn classified it as nervous<br />
fever, while many of the <strong>pioneer</strong>s called it brain fever.<br />
Causes were generally supposed to be night air, putrid<br />
vegetable and animal matter in the air, grief, fear, unripe<br />
fruit, want of sleep, and intense thought.* Dr. William W.<br />
Gerhard of Philadelphia, who published <strong>his</strong> observations<br />
in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences in 1837,<br />
was one of the first to differentiate between typhoid and<br />
typhus fevers. Many of the cases and fatalities listed under<br />
bilious fevers, autumnal fevers, and the like, were typhoid.<br />
Living conditions with reference to disposal of offal,<br />
absence of screens, uncertain water supply, and careless<br />
handling of milk, as well as ignorance of cause and method
of transfer, were conducive to the development and spread<br />
of t<strong>his</strong> disease.<br />
Dr. Nathaniel Potter, one of the editors of the Maryland<br />
Medical and Surgical Journal, writing of the western<br />
country, reported pleurisies, rheumatisms, and inflammations<br />
as generally prevalent during the winter months.<br />
Catarrh, too, was common and often terminated in consumption,<br />
which he called the endemic of the region,<br />
serious enough in many districts and seasons to account<br />
for one-fourth of the mortality. Quinsy in various forms,<br />
inflammation of internal parts of the body, scarlet fever,<br />
and measles came in cycles at three- or four-year intervals.<br />
Nettle rash, asthma, and cholera afflicted the children, particularly<br />
in the summer months. Apoplexy and palsy were<br />
not so much endemic as they were the frequent result of<br />
intemperance. Asthma, epilepsy, dropsy, and St. Vitus's<br />
dance were no more peculiar to the new country than elsewhere.<br />
Rickets were rare . . . ; scrofula was more common.<br />
From one affliction Dr. Potter thought the West suffered<br />
less: the active habits of the people left little time for<br />
hypochondria.<br />
It was a common belief that measles, whooping cough,<br />
diphtheria, and the like were inevitable and unavoidable,<br />
and that to try to escape would be to defy Providence.<br />
Hence, when the weather was seasonable and the blood in<br />
good condition, children were often deliberately exposed<br />
to these contagious diseases.<br />
Knowledge of vaccination for smallpox came to the<br />
United States in 1800. A year later Dr. WiUiam Goforth<br />
of Cincinnati was using the new discovery,^ and by 1803<br />
Dr. Samuel Brown of Lexington had vaccinated five hundred<br />
persons. In 1809 Dr. Saugrain gave notice in the<br />
Missouri Gazette of the first vaccine matter brought to St.<br />
Louis and promised to vaccinate "indigent persons, paupers<br />
and Indians" gratuitously. Notices appeared in some of the<br />
western papers in 1814 that James Smith of Baltimore,<br />
recently appointed vaccination agent by the President of<br />
the United States, would furnish vaccine matter to any<br />
23
24<br />
physician or other citizen of the country who might apply.<br />
In 1817 Dr. Heath of Madison announced in the Indiana<br />
Republican that he would inoculate for one dollar, or<br />
gratuitously if necessary. In 1824, when smallpox became<br />
bad in the West, the Cincinnati City Council placed a<br />
doctor in the council chamber to vaccinate all who came<br />
at a fee of fifty cents if able to pay, otherwise free. <strong>The</strong><br />
doctor expected "to be enabled soon to supply upon the<br />
ordinary conditions country physicians and others with<br />
the genuine vaccine matter" through "an agency or connexion<br />
with the agent at Philadelphia." Later t<strong>his</strong> same<br />
year it was announced that "County Physicians can be<br />
supplied with genuine Matter at all times, at moderate<br />
prices," and that for an additional charge of fifty cents<br />
each person desiring vaccination might be attended at <strong>his</strong><br />
own dwelling. Vaccination did not become generally available<br />
to the <strong>pioneer</strong> until many years after its first use in<br />
the cities, and even when available it was often refused by<br />
the pious as contrary to the will of the Almighty. Smallpox<br />
epidemics varied in severity, but the disease was at all times<br />
feared. Even though the sufferer survived, the disfigurement<br />
sometimes made him wish he had not.<br />
Degenerative diseases of the heart, kidneys, liver, and<br />
other organs which mostly affected persons well along in<br />
years, attracted no special attention in the West. <strong>The</strong>ir<br />
incidence was not so high relatively as today, since most<br />
people did not live long enough to develop them.<br />
In addition to its own maladies the West was subjected<br />
in 1832 to the attacks of a strange invader. Since 1816 the<br />
Asiatic cholera had been creeping westward from India,<br />
leaving its path of destruction. By 1830 it had reached<br />
Moscow and the Near East and within twelve months had<br />
spread to western Europe, England, and Ireland. Early in<br />
1832 an emigrant ship which landed at Quebec bore t<strong>his</strong><br />
deadly passenger. <strong>The</strong> disease ascended the St. Lawrence<br />
to Montreal, thence travelled to Albany and New York.<br />
By July death reports were emanating from New York,<br />
Philadelphia, and Erie with alarming frequency.^"
25<br />
General Scott's trcx)ps on the way from Buffalo to the<br />
Black Hawk War landed at Detroit on July 4 with the<br />
disease, and death and panic followed. <strong>The</strong> upper story of<br />
the capitol building was used as a hospital. Fifty-eight<br />
cases were reported in the town, twenty-eight deaths<br />
resulted in two weeks, and the tolling of funeral bells was<br />
discontinued because of the demoralizing effect. <strong>The</strong> death<br />
cart passed day and night with the cry, "Bring out the<br />
dead." <strong>The</strong> wasted remnant of the troops was taken on to<br />
Fort Dearborn to spread the disease in Chicago and the<br />
West. <strong>The</strong> soldiers arrived there July 1 and it was reported<br />
that eighteen died within thirty hours. Soon there were<br />
thirty or more cases in Chicago, and those inhabitants who<br />
could leave did so. <strong>The</strong> Indian agent there wrote on July 1 6,<br />
"Every family has left Chicago, and gone in different<br />
directions to escape from t<strong>his</strong> malignant disease." By July<br />
28 the Indianapolis Indiana Journal listed one hundred fifty<br />
cases and fifty deaths, and yet another account told of<br />
fifty-eight deaths in one week from the two hundred cases<br />
in the Fort Dearborn hospital.<br />
Apparently nothing could stop the progress of t<strong>his</strong><br />
plague as it spread around the lakes to the Wisconsin country,<br />
across Illinois to the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio<br />
to Cincinnati, and down the river to localize in New<br />
Orleans. By August the plague had crept around from<br />
Detroit to attack Cleveland. After October Cincinnati was<br />
almost demoralized as the deaths mounted to three hundred<br />
fifty-one in about three weeks. People fled to the<br />
country to escape, business was disrupted, newspaper carriers<br />
were gone and no one knew their routes. From Cincinnati<br />
the disease passed by stagecoach and river boat to<br />
Maysville, Lexington, Nashville, and Florence, Alabama;<br />
the tributary rivers furnished avenues of transmission both<br />
north and south but the epidemics in the Middle South<br />
were not very severe, because of the lateness of the season<br />
and unfavorable conditions. Only five cases were reported<br />
at Lexington and a few more at Louisville. Madison, Indiana,<br />
however, had forty-two cases and twenty-two deaths
26<br />
by November 8. It was estimated that Philadelphia and<br />
Baltimore had lost one thousand each and New York even<br />
more; the New Orleans dead, rumored to be about three<br />
hundred per day, were buried in trenches, if<br />
at all.<br />
Henry Clay introduced a joint resolution in Congress for<br />
a day of prayer, and Governor Noah Noble of Indiana<br />
proclaimed a day "for fasting and prayer to an overruling<br />
Providence, beseeching Him to arrest the progress of the<br />
disease, with its train of calamities," and urged all who<br />
believed in the efficacy of prayer to participate.<br />
With the coming of cold weather the ravages diminished,<br />
only to return in the summer of 1833 with greater<br />
severity and over a wider range. Cincinnati suffered even<br />
worse than the previous year; total cholera deaths there<br />
for the year ending September 18, 1833, were eight hundred<br />
thirteen, or one in every forty people, as contrasted<br />
with the rate from all causes for the four years preceding<br />
of one in thirty-four. <strong>The</strong> disease spread to Columbus and<br />
the state penitentiary; to Aurora and Salem, Indiana, where<br />
one hundred out of eight hundred inhabitants were said<br />
to have died within a week; north to Bloomington, where<br />
the Indiana College had to be closed; and to Indianapolis,<br />
where sixty-two deaths occurred in a month. Apparently<br />
the Wabash towns were not affected. Wheeling, Louisville,<br />
Lexington, and Alton were also visited. From Maysville,<br />
as news of an impending epidemic spread, nine-tenths of<br />
the inhabitants scattered before the lapse of thirty-six<br />
hours, and for over two weeks the city remained nearly<br />
deserted. <strong>The</strong> population of Lexington was reduced from<br />
more than six thousand to fewer than four thousand;<br />
people had been dying at the rate of from fifty to sixty<br />
a day during the peak of the epidemic. <strong>The</strong> Michigan Territory<br />
legislature authorized the towns to establish a quarantine<br />
against travellers, and even Governor Stevens T.<br />
Mason was arrested when he tried to go through Ypsilanti.<br />
By autumn southern Illinois papers were announcing that<br />
there were no more cholera cases. It returned, however, to<br />
visit Rushville, Pekin, Springfield, and St. Louis in 1834.
17<br />
Madison, Indiana, was revisited in 1835, when thirty-two<br />
deaths were reported to June 24, fifteen having died in<br />
one day.<br />
In 1840 Asiatic cholera again started on its march—<br />
from Calcutta to central Asia, Russia, along the trade<br />
routes to Europe, and by way of German emigrants to<br />
America. In the autumn of 1848 two ships brought the<br />
scourge to New York and New Orleans. Deaths in the<br />
latter in the winter and spring were near four thousand.<br />
Steamboats and railroads, as well as stagecoaches, spread<br />
the disease more rapidly than in 1832-33. Louisville and<br />
St. Louis received boatloads of passengers and cholera in<br />
December. Soon the whole interior valley was afflicted;<br />
the pestilence seemingly broke out spontaneously. By<br />
spring it was rampant. Evansville, Indiana, had one hundred<br />
fifty deaths. New Albany forty, and Salem thirty.<br />
<strong>The</strong> village of Napoleon lost thirty-five of its two hundred<br />
fifty inhabitants. Dearborn County was very hard hit.<br />
Cincinnati, with a population of approximately one hundred<br />
ten thousand, had 5,969 deaths in fifteen weeks.<br />
Again all was in confusion. Dayton lost one hundred<br />
twelve lives, one hundred died in the penitentiary at<br />
Columbus, and the fatalities at Lexington totalled three<br />
hundred forty-two. St. Louis deaths numbered about<br />
forty-five hundred; the population declined from seventy<br />
thousand to fifty thousand as people fled. Chicago and<br />
Detroit fared relatively well with three hundred fourteen<br />
and eighty-one deaths respectively.<br />
It was not so much the number of cases and high fatality<br />
of the disease, but the mysteriousness and suddenness with<br />
which it struck that filled people with a dread and fear<br />
which often reached panic. Persons in excellent health<br />
were suddenly stricken with a feeling of uneasiness and<br />
shortly were consumed with inward burnings and a craving<br />
for cold drinks; then came vomiting, intestinal spasms<br />
almost as severe as in tetanus cases, and finally general<br />
debility, slow circulation, sunken eyes, cold lifeless skin,
28<br />
and collapse. <strong>The</strong> fate of many victims was decided within<br />
a few hours.<br />
As Dr. Thomas D. Mitchell of the Medical College of<br />
Ohio described it:<br />
'^<strong>The</strong> pestilence stalks in the midnight gloom<br />
And mantles the gay with the pall of the tomb<br />
Nor beatUy nor youth from^ its clutch can flee<br />
It k<strong>ills</strong> on the land, it blasts on the sea."<br />
Much speculation as to causes and keen interest as to<br />
treatment were aroused. As in the yellow fever epidemics<br />
earlier, various theories were advanced. Bad air, exhalations<br />
from the bowels of the earth, insensible changes in the<br />
atmosphere, comets, and animalculae— insects too small<br />
to see— in the air, were offered as explanations. Dr. Reese,<br />
of New York, listed among the exciting causes; indigestible<br />
vegetables, ardent spirits, beer, ale, and wine; pork, lobsters,<br />
and crabs; green corn, clams, and oysters; watermelons,<br />
cucumbers, strawberries, peaches, and pears; cabbage<br />
and greens; cheese, opium in any form, jalap and other<br />
drastic cathartics, and nostrums of all kinds. Others merely<br />
said the disease was contagious and let it go at that.<br />
Dr. Drake of Cincinnati, probably the best known<br />
medical man in the West, whose writings on cholera were<br />
copied widely in the newspapers, inclined to the animalculae<br />
hypothesis— a rather close approach to the later<br />
germ theory. He called attention to the city filth, the<br />
neglected vaults, the lack of personal cleanliness, adequate<br />
ventilation, and proper diet; he advised normal diet, continuation<br />
of one's normal habits regarding liquor, a calm<br />
and hopeful mind, and if one could afford it the wearing<br />
of thin flannel over the trunk of the body. Quarantine<br />
he considered futile, as well as embarrassing to commerce.<br />
When it came to treatment, Dr. Drake's ideas hardly<br />
seem so sensible and modern. He thought calomel, jalap,<br />
rhubarb, opium, mercury, weak lye, and mustard might<br />
possess some efficacy, but most startHng was <strong>his</strong> recom-
29<br />
mendation of the old standby of the regular <strong>doctors</strong>,<br />
bleeding:<br />
"To bleed a patient who cannot be raised from <strong>his</strong> pillow<br />
without fainting, whose pulse is nearly imperceptible,<br />
whose skin is cold, and extremities shrunk up to half their<br />
ordinary size, would at first view, seem rash and unwarrantable.<br />
But experience, which in medicine can grant<br />
warrants for any procedure, has sanctioned the use of the<br />
lancet even when all these and other symptoms of extreme<br />
prostration, are present. . . . <strong>The</strong> quantity taken must<br />
vary with the effect. It generally flows with difficulty . . .<br />
and sometimes not at all, though large veins be opened. In<br />
every desperate case, recourse should be had to the juglars,<br />
from which blood will flow when it cannot be elicited<br />
from the arms; and flowing, must contribute more to the<br />
relief of the oppressed brain, than when drawn from the<br />
extremities."^^<br />
Others advised cleaning the streets, alleys and privies;<br />
recommended avoidance of excessive exertion, eating and<br />
drinking; warned against sitting in the sun or a current of<br />
air; and advocated airy, clean rooms and a daily bath.<br />
Warnings were issued by <strong>doctors</strong> against the "infallible"<br />
quack remedies. All one could do, according to one Dr.<br />
Rigdon, quoted in the Hamilton Intelligencer, was to keep<br />
in good health and take prompt care of bowel and stomach<br />
disorders by putting the feet in hot ashes and water, taking<br />
ten grains of calomel and one of opium, covering up in<br />
bed with hot bricks and boiled ears of corn, and using<br />
warm mint tea inside, and mustard poultices outside, the<br />
stomach.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Botanies, of course, had slightly different ideas. A<br />
widely copied recipe called for a mixture of one gallon of<br />
fourth-proof West India rum, one gallon of molasses, one<br />
quart of number 6 [Thomson's lobelia, etc.] and two<br />
ounces of cayenne pepper— three doses daily for prevention,<br />
one-half glass every half hour for cure. In the 1849<br />
epidemic Dr. Herrick, of Chicago, published an article in<br />
the Northwest Medical Journal in which he claimed sul-
30<br />
phur was an effective specific. Soon thereafter a Dr. Bird<br />
was advocating sulphur and charcoal p<strong>ills</strong>, with testimonials.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> popular remedy faded with the discovery<br />
that morphine was the main ingredient of the p<strong>ills</strong>.<br />
Hardly to be classified as diseases but certainly as ubiquitous<br />
and sometimes as deleterious in effect were the pests<br />
and varmints of the woods and swamps. Although house<br />
flies were not present when the first settlers arrived, the<br />
stock flies and mosquitoes were. From the woods and lowlands<br />
they swarmed by the millions in season to bleed man<br />
and beast. Often cows could be milked only under the<br />
protection of a rotten wood smudge. Fleas and bedbugs,<br />
the latter considered almost a domestic necessity by a certain<br />
class of inhabitants, emerged from the cracks and<br />
crevices of cabin and house to irritate and consume. Despite<br />
a relatively late arrival the house fly soon made up for lost<br />
time. In the absence of screens or sprays t<strong>his</strong> insect had<br />
the freedom of barn and home. It wallowed in milk crocks<br />
and blackened drying fruit; it covered the sleeping baby's<br />
face and crawled persistently over dunghill, carrion, and<br />
food. At harvest-time meals, wedding dinners, and on other<br />
occasions for company-meals boys and girls minded the<br />
table with leafy branches or paper-strip fly shooers so that<br />
people could eat. Although regarded as a minor nuisance,<br />
the fly played its part as an arbiter of health. Two generations<br />
of science and education and the crusading spirit of<br />
Dr. John N. Hurty and others were required to make the<br />
people conscious of the disease-spreading propensities of<br />
the fly.<br />
Other dangers lurked in the form of venomous snakes,<br />
which frequently disputed the white man's occupation of<br />
the land as effectively as did the Indian. <strong>The</strong> spreading<br />
viper put up a vicious front, but was a 'possum at heart<br />
and not in the least dangerous. It was the rattlesnake and<br />
the copperhead which caused the trouble. Although the<br />
former was supposed to declare <strong>his</strong> hostile intent before<br />
striking, he had an unpleasant habit of lying on the other<br />
side of log or rock to be trod upon by the unwary. <strong>The</strong>
copperhead was entirely oblivious of the rules of war. Snake<br />
drives were participated in by neighbors during off-seasons<br />
on the farm. Statistical summaries of these hunts are astonishing<br />
to a person familiar with the country a century<br />
later. Sometimes several hundred rattlesnakes, from three<br />
to ten feet in length, were killed.<br />
In a period of active life in the open—when women as<br />
well as men chopped wood, handled horses, and worked<br />
around open fires, when men plowed without socks, and<br />
children went barefoot— cuts, bruises, sprains, and broken<br />
bones were regular occurrences. Soiled clothing, infrequent<br />
bathing, and intimate contact with germ-infected soil<br />
often resulted in serious consequences. "Blood poisoning"<br />
and "lock jaw" were all too often fatal.<br />
Certainly not a disease, but nevertheless a hazard, at<br />
least for the women, was childbirth. Early marriages and<br />
large families were the rule, for a young man could support<br />
a family as soon as he could do a man's work on the farm.<br />
Said a Kentucky congressman in 1824:<br />
"Why sir, you may visit the humblest cottage in our<br />
country, and you will find everything to admire. So soon<br />
as the faithful dog, by <strong>his</strong> saluting bark, announces that a<br />
stranger is coming, your astonishment would commence;<br />
you would have the singular felicity of beholding a most<br />
delightful spectacle— about twelve or thirteen fine, ruddy,<br />
well-formed, hearty-looking young Democrats, would run<br />
out to see the stranger; and upon entering the house, you<br />
would be met by a very plain unaffected woman, to all<br />
appearances about thirty years old, whose countenance<br />
would at once tell you to make yourself easy; you would<br />
meet with kindness, and, in casting your eyes around, you<br />
would see two more little fellows, who were too small to<br />
run out at the first alarm."<br />
Such descriptions indicate an ideal or culture trait of the<br />
time. Politicians thought of votes, man-power, increasing<br />
wealth. Some parents thought of children as economic<br />
assets; others took seriously the injunction to be fruitful<br />
and multiply, or took pride in their large broods as evi-<br />
31
32<br />
dence of virility and social standing; many gave the matter<br />
little or no thought. Exhausting physical labor in field and<br />
home was apparently no deterrent; children came in almost<br />
annual crops.<br />
For some <strong>pioneer</strong> women, rugged and toughened by hard<br />
work, childbirth was not an event seriously to interfere<br />
with the routine of life. <strong>The</strong>re were instances of outdoor<br />
deliveries, even in winter, after which the mother carried<br />
the infant some miles to shelter, neither seemingly the worse<br />
off for the experience; but these were the exceptions rather<br />
than the rule. Even after the prejudice against calhng male<br />
physicians for childbirth had passed, wives were frequently<br />
far from the services of a doctor when their time came,<br />
and were dependent upon the help of neighbors, among<br />
whom there probably would be at least one who made<br />
profession to midwifery. True, some of these local "grannies,"<br />
as well as <strong>pioneer</strong> <strong>doctors</strong>, were very skillful at child<br />
by common sense and practical experience they<br />
delivery;<br />
often overcame the handicap of lack of instruments and<br />
other aids. For instance, when the baby proved too reluctant<br />
to enter the world "on its own," a bit of dried snufif<br />
blown into the mother's nose by way of a goose quill would<br />
bring on sneezing paroxysms and probably the desired<br />
results. (Persons so introduced were spoken of in later life<br />
as having been quilled babies.) <strong>The</strong>n, too, puerperal infections<br />
and other dangers which have to be carefully guarded<br />
against in hospitals were comparatively rare among these<br />
isolated cases. ^^ Nevertheless, when added to the other<br />
hardships of life, the burden of too frequent childbearing<br />
and inexpert attention usually exacted its penalty. All too<br />
many women lost their bloom with their teens, were tired<br />
out and run down by the twenties, and old at forty. Tombstones<br />
in the churchyards bear testimony that many a wife,<br />
having delivered numerous progeny, died young, to be<br />
followed by a second who contributed her quota and labors,<br />
and perhaps by a third who stood a good chance to outlive<br />
the husband.<br />
Infant mortality was high. <strong>The</strong> prayers for large fam-
33<br />
ilies*' were usually followed in <strong>pioneer</strong> journals and reminiscences<br />
by depressing records of early deaths: "<strong>The</strong><br />
giving up of our little son [sixth child],— who departed<br />
t<strong>his</strong> life second month, 26th, so earnest and thoughtful for<br />
<strong>his</strong> age, pierced our hearts deeply." In the next paragraph:<br />
"Our little daughter, was born 29th of eleventh month,<br />
and departed t<strong>his</strong> life eighth month 1 3 th. Our little daughter<br />
came as a jewel into our family, remaining with us only<br />
eight months and fourteen days. She was as beautiful as<br />
the sunlight and as sweet as a rose. Her visit was short in<br />
t<strong>his</strong> beautiful world." A year later: "Our son—was born<br />
first month, 29th— a frail delicate child." Nine children<br />
and then the mother died. "She left us and the pleasant<br />
scenes of time going into the Beyond, fourth month 12th,<br />
feeling an assurance that all would be well with her." But<br />
it soon became "an imperative duty to secure a companion<br />
for myself and a mother for my children." In due course<br />
were recorded six more children and several more deaths,<br />
mostly from preventable diseases. In later years t<strong>his</strong> rugged<br />
and exemplary go-getter, who had accumulated even more<br />
acres than offspring, seemed to have had slight doubts.<br />
"As I look back over the years gone by, I conclude I would<br />
be much better satisfied if I had put up a small stable near<br />
the school house, and provided a horse and vehicle for the<br />
children to ride to and from school." As for the poorer and<br />
less responsible folk, they were troubled neither by "imperative<br />
duties" nor by post-mortem retrospection.<br />
Babies being no rarity, they received no special attention:<br />
they were raised, not reared. <strong>The</strong> same rule of thumb,<br />
or trial and error, methods that applied to crops or cattle<br />
were good enough. <strong>The</strong> science of infant care was not yet,<br />
and instead of a vitamin, baby got a bacon rind, sometimes<br />
attached to a string so that when accidentally swallowed<br />
it might be recovered. When weaned, usually by the<br />
almanac, youngsters began to eat cornbread, biscuits, and<br />
"pot likker" like grown-ups. <strong>The</strong> fittest survived, and the<br />
rest "the Lord seen fitten to take away."<br />
Although mental disorders do not fall within the scope
34<br />
of t<strong>his</strong> survey, an exception is made for the "hypo." Few<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong> women had the time or incUnation to cultivate an<br />
interesting pallor or the art of attractive fainting— some<br />
could swing an axe like a logger or "chaw 'baccy" like any<br />
man— yet there were exceptions who reserved the rights<br />
and prerogatives of the weaker sex. A Michigan settler had<br />
a wife who was subject to fits of hypochondria. After stopping<br />
work a number of times, riding miles for a doctor<br />
and returning with him only to find her about her affairs<br />
as<br />
usual, he remonstrated mildly and told her he did not<br />
believe the spells were necessary. Whereupon she proclaimed:<br />
"Elmer Bacon, 'tain't no use talkin*, I can have<br />
fits, and I will have 'em." But more about the hypo later.<br />
When <strong>pioneer</strong>s met it was more than mere courtesy<br />
which called forth the inquiry concerning the health of<br />
families and acquaintances. All too often the answer was<br />
that so and so was ailin' or "was poorly, right poorly." If at<br />
times there were individuals who enjoyed poor health, there<br />
were energetic souls who would not stop working; of them<br />
it could be said, "they hadn't orter be a doin'." Were no<br />
serious illness present, the answer would be "tolerable, just<br />
tolerable." Things seldom got better than that.
HOME REMEDIES AND<br />
DOMESTIC MEDICINE<br />
CHAPTER II<br />
"My medicine, though made of herbs, doth wond'rojis<br />
<strong>cures</strong> perform.<br />
And yet each one may practice it tuithout producing<br />
harm.''<br />
— Dr. Richard Carter<br />
zyVLuch. of the medical treatment in <strong>pioneer</strong> days was<br />
domestic and primitive. Provided a doctor were available,<br />
it required time and money to get <strong>his</strong> services and he was,<br />
generally speaking, called only for serious cases. Even then<br />
home remedies or folk <strong>cures</strong> were likely to have been used<br />
before the doctor was called. Besides being responsible for<br />
the domestic economy of the home — everything from<br />
food and clothing to spelling and courting— the mother,<br />
wife, or woman of the house was by prerogative and default<br />
the custodian of medicines, and administratrix of treatments.<br />
If home resources did not suffice, there was usually<br />
someone in each community who was handy in caring for<br />
the sick and steeped in <strong>his</strong> or her lore or system of <strong>cures</strong> —<br />
a combination of homemade science, empiricism, and<br />
superstition.
36<br />
Naturally Indian influences were strong, and many early<br />
settlers relied upon the "yarb and root" <strong>doctors</strong> who<br />
worked largely with remedies obtained from forest and<br />
garden. For a century French voyageurs and coureurs du<br />
hois had preferred the Indian treatment of wounds and<br />
chronic sores with poultices and herbs to that of the whites.<br />
Native medicine men also doctored many other <strong>ills</strong> with<br />
concoctions of herbs, drinks, sweatings, and rubbings,<br />
usually accompanied with ceremonials, incantations, ghost<br />
shooting in the night, and similar aids. <strong>The</strong>y even sucked out<br />
manitous, or evil spirits. In some western communities in<br />
the earlier years there were Indian <strong>doctors</strong> who were held<br />
in quite as high repute as<br />
regular white <strong>doctors</strong>.<br />
Many <strong>pioneer</strong>s who practiced their <strong>cures</strong> in the Indian<br />
tradition did so as an avocation— to stand out among their<br />
fellow men, or to be neighborly and helpful. Others made<br />
it a full-time pursuit and their advertisements in the newspapers<br />
were not uncommon. For instance, at Springfield,<br />
Illinois, in the mid-1830's, appeared the announcement of<br />
T. J. Luster, an "Indian and German Root Doctor." He<br />
offered numerous favorable testimonials regarding <strong>his</strong> success<br />
in curing "Sciatic, weak lungs, fits, inward weakness<br />
and nervous affections; liver complaints, fever and ague,<br />
pleurisy, asthma, coughs, colds, dyspepsia, rheumatism, cancers,<br />
rickets, fever sores, piles, worms and tape worms, and<br />
many other diseases that aflfect the human system." In Connersville,<br />
Indiana, there was a "doctor" who had "nailed up<br />
to the weather-boarding of the hotel, an enormous swamplily<br />
root, almost as large as a man, with head, eyes, nose,<br />
ears and mouth nicely carved, arms and legs with feet<br />
stuck on, and just above the sign on a board, marked with<br />
chalk, *Joseph S. Burr, Root Doctor; No calomel.* Hundreds<br />
came from all parts of the country to see the doctor<br />
and the big root." <strong>The</strong>y must have consulted him, too, for<br />
the regular <strong>doctors</strong> went after him, the people took sides,<br />
a law suit and trial followed, and the root doctor ran away.<br />
One of <strong>his</strong> pupils, "Thomas T. Chinn, constable three<br />
weeks before and barely able to write <strong>his</strong> name, became
37<br />
*Dr. Chinn, Root Doctor and No Calomel.* " According<br />
to one of <strong>his</strong> own accounts:<br />
"I lost only nine fine patients last week, one of them an<br />
old lady that I wanted to cure very bad, but she died in<br />
spite of all I could do. I tried every root I could find but<br />
she still grew worse, and there being nobody here to detect<br />
my practice, like the other regular <strong>doctors</strong> I concluded<br />
to try calamus, and dug up a root about nine inches long<br />
and made a tea of it. She drank it with some difficulty,<br />
turned over in the bed and died. Still I don't think it was<br />
the calamus that killed her, as all the calamus <strong>doctors</strong> are<br />
giving it in heavier doses than I did."^<br />
Doctors of t<strong>his</strong> type dispensed with the hocus-pocus<br />
of the Indian shamen and adapted the <strong>cures</strong> to their own<br />
uses, but the basis of their treatments was essentially the<br />
same as that of the natives. <strong>The</strong> recipes and <strong>cures</strong> in the<br />
"yarb and root" category were legion. Not all were of<br />
Indian origin; as did the folk charm-<strong>cures</strong>, they derived<br />
from ancient Egypt, China, India and elsewhere, as well as<br />
from the New World, where they had developed independently.^<br />
<strong>The</strong> first English book devoted exclusively to herbs was<br />
Banckes's Herbal, 1525, which was apparently compiled<br />
from various earlier sources. <strong>The</strong> fact that t<strong>his</strong> small work<br />
went through about twenty editions established its position<br />
as the most popular English herbal. <strong>The</strong> quaint and blunt<br />
recipes, though fascinating, did not include American<br />
plants. <strong>The</strong>se became generally known in England half a<br />
century later, when, 1577-80, John Frampton "Englished"<br />
the works of Doctor Nicholas Monardus (1493-1558),<br />
physician of Seville. Monardus was one of the first Europeans<br />
to collect medicinal lore from the New World and<br />
make it available to physicians of <strong>his</strong> time; <strong>his</strong> museum,<br />
established in 1554, was a collecting center for products of<br />
the West Indies.<br />
He had, 1545-69, written on the "Bezaar"<br />
stone, the herb Escuerconera, and added a sketch of plants<br />
of the West Indies. In 1571 he made a contribution on<br />
"the thinges that are brought from the Occidentall Indias,
38<br />
which Serve for the use of Medicine," and on "the Snow<br />
and its vertues." <strong>The</strong>se two works were combined in 1574<br />
and Frampton pubHshed incomplete translations in 1577<br />
and 1580. <strong>The</strong> first complete edition was the third, published<br />
in London, 1596, under the title Joyfull Newes Out<br />
of the New found World. Wherein are declared, the rare<br />
Ihe Sa/fafras,<br />
"From the Lande of our Occidentall Indies . . . thei bryng a<br />
woodd of a tree of greate vertues . . . and heyng sicke of any<br />
maner of evill . . . sharpe or large, hot or colde, greevous or<br />
otherwise, they doe cure all . . . without makyng any difference<br />
. . . and so they have it for a universall remedy, for all<br />
meaner of deseases."<br />
and angular vertues of divers Herbs, Trees, Plantes, Oyles<br />
^ Stones, with their applications, as well to the use of<br />
P<strong>his</strong>icke, as of Chirurgery, etc.
39<br />
Of the herbs of the New World Monardus gave special<br />
attention to "the Tobaco and of <strong>his</strong> great vertues," and to<br />
the sassafras. <strong>The</strong> tobacco had important curative powers<br />
for "paynes in the head," "wormes," toothache, "Chilblaynes,"<br />
"venomus carbuncles," cankered wounds, hunger,<br />
thirst, and "any griefe of the body."<br />
<strong>The</strong> sassafras roots and water "healeth opilations," "comforteth<br />
the liver and the Stomock," "give appetite to eate,"<br />
cast out stones, "provoketh urine," and, used hot, "maketh<br />
a man goe to the Stoole." Further, "Where there is windinesse,<br />
it consumeth and dissolveth it, and also any maner of<br />
colde of the belly, and it dissolveth the swelling of it, curing<br />
any manner of disease which proceedeth of the<br />
Mother." Hence, since it was the "greate colde that is<br />
ingendered within the Mother, which doth hinder the cause<br />
of generation," it was recommended "to make Women<br />
with childe." Warning was issued, however, to those who<br />
"have much heate, or bee of a hot complexion." Such<br />
persons were to take sassafras in very moderate doses.<br />
Monardus got <strong>his</strong> herb recipes from Spanish and French<br />
explorers and soldiers, who in turn had learned of their use<br />
from the natives. No other work of the sixteenth century<br />
so widely disseminated the medical knowledge of the New<br />
World in Europe; some of t<strong>his</strong>, in turn, came back to<br />
America from Europe. Medicines imported by Spain from<br />
the New World found their way to England, where Frampton's<br />
work helped popularize them. In a way, the Frampton-Monardus<br />
writing might be considered the forbear of<br />
the many books of t<strong>his</strong> type which followed in England<br />
and English America.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first known Americafn medical book, the Badianus<br />
Manuscript of An Aztec Herbal of 1552, was not published<br />
until 1940.^ T<strong>his</strong> work with its scores of plant color<br />
plates, is a mine of information for the botanist as well as<br />
the medical <strong>his</strong>torian. Obviously it could have had no<br />
influence on the Spanish and English herbals, but Aztec<br />
medicine did reach Spain and England, as well as Indians<br />
north of the Rio Grande, both by word of mouth and
40<br />
through the writings of Spanish explorers and <strong>his</strong>torians.*<br />
Herb recipes in the Middle West were not confined to<br />
the herbals and formal medical works; they were passed<br />
along from person to person, copied down in odd places,<br />
recorded in household remedy books, and published in<br />
almanacs and newspapers. Many of them were later taken<br />
over by the various botanic medical schools. Some sixty of<br />
the drugs used by the American Indian may be found today<br />
in the modern materia medica and among the formulae<br />
manufactured by standard pharmaceutical houses. Of<br />
thousands of recipes used originally a few will suffice for<br />
samples. Some were administered for specific <strong>ills</strong>; others<br />
were taken just on general principles.<br />
For fevers were recommended sweating and snake root,<br />
with a purge of white-walnut bark peeled upward;^ also<br />
sassafras, dogwood, willow, or a glass of pearl ash and<br />
water. <strong>The</strong> breaking out in eruptive fevers, such as measles,<br />
was hastened by the use of sheep-dung tea, popularly<br />
known as nanny tea. For pleurisy (if no bleeders were at<br />
hand) : catnip or pennyroyal, or butterfly weed tea, and<br />
applications of brimstone, sulphur and eggs, or boiled hot<br />
nettles. For indigestion: rhubarb bitters or cayenne pepper<br />
in spirits applied to the stomach outside, and water and<br />
good old spiritous liquor within. For "summer complaint"<br />
or dysentery would be prescribed a poultice of peppermint<br />
and tansy leaves, syrup of rhubarb with niter, or slippery<br />
elm. If a child so afflicted wished to indulge in ripe blackberries,<br />
old cheese, or fresh ham and eggs it should be<br />
allowed to do so. Bloodroot was also good for dysentery,<br />
or a strong decoction of mullen mixed and simmered in<br />
new milk would promote immediate improvement.<br />
Did baby have a fit, it was due to worms, and "pink and<br />
senna" were quickly administered; or else a dose of twenty<br />
to forty grains of scrapings from pewter spoons. Green<br />
copperas, or sugar and turpentine had their advocates. A<br />
tapeworm was not treated so roughly, for pumpkin-seed<br />
tea was the proper remedy. For colds and sore throat: a<br />
piece of fat meat with pepper tied around the neck; grease
41<br />
from the Christmas goose; mustard and onion poultices;<br />
bloodroot or cherry bark; and rock candy and w<strong>his</strong>key.<br />
For croup and asthma, alum, Indian turnip root in molasses,<br />
or onion and garlic juice sometimes proved helpful. Garlic<br />
rubbed on the spine was a good whooping cough cure. A<br />
cold might properly be treated with a mixture of flaxseed,<br />
licorice, raisins, sugar candy, and white vinegar.<br />
Rheumatism was treated externally with rattlesnake-,<br />
goose-, or bear-oil, and internally with a mixture of calomel,<br />
tartarized antimony, cayenne pepper, and gum<br />
camphor, or with a tincture of butterfly weed roots or ripe<br />
pokeberries in French brandy. If fever was present one<br />
might add bleeding. Too, rheumatism might be cured by<br />
oil of the cajipul tree, which was also good for sciatica,<br />
lumbago, epilepsy, stings, burns, and snake bite. Strong tea<br />
of pokeberry leaves or rattleweed was recommended for<br />
smallpox victims. Saffron tea would bring out the measles;<br />
a bag of pounded slippery elm bark over the eyes of the<br />
measles sufferer would draw out the fever; a poultice of<br />
scraped raw potato was supposed to cure headache. A wash<br />
of diluted essence of sassafras would cure "the most inveterate<br />
case" of sore eyes in a few days.^ <strong>The</strong> itch cure was<br />
hot water and soft soap applied with a corncob, followed<br />
by a lotion of sulphur and lard, or gunpowder and lard.<br />
Erysipelas called for a mixture of bitter root, yellow root,<br />
and slippery elm to be taken internally.<br />
Consumption, having various causes, deserved various<br />
remedies. Among them according to the Hamilton, Ohio,<br />
Miami Herald of January 29, 1818, were: drink only water<br />
and eat only water gruel; eat only buttermilk and white<br />
bread; take spring water, new milk, and two ounces of<br />
sugar candy; drink one glass before each meal of a handful<br />
of sorrel boiled in a pint of whey; eat twenty ivy leaves<br />
and three sprigs of hyssop boiled in one pint of skim milk<br />
and one-half pint of small beer ("has cured a desperate<br />
case") ; take a cow heel, two quarts of milk, nine ounces<br />
of hartshorn shavings, two ounces of ising-glass, one-fourth<br />
pound of sugar candy and a race of ginger, set in a pot in
42<br />
the oven, let cool, and let the patient live on t<strong>his</strong>; cut a hole<br />
in the turf, lie down and breathe in it a quarter hour each<br />
morning ("deep cases been cured so") ; inhale burning<br />
frankincense; inhale steam of white rosin and beeswax;<br />
etc., etc. For last stages suck a healthy woman, and (or)<br />
eat apples and milk, water gruel with fine flour, cider whey,<br />
barley water, or apple water sharpened with lemon juice.<br />
Snake bite offered a wide choice of remedies, from white<br />
plantain boiled in milk, ash bark tea, alum water, or w<strong>his</strong>key<br />
internally applied, to incision and application of salt<br />
and gunpowder, black ash leaves, crushed garlic juice, or<br />
salt and tobacco. To cuts and burns were applied crushed<br />
horse-radish leaves in vinegar; a salve of pokeberry leaves<br />
boiled in flour, honey, eggs, and sweet oil; or poultices of<br />
slippery elm or flaxseed. Jimson-leaf salve was recommended<br />
for infection, Indian turnip or bog onion for carbuncles;<br />
and of course the camphor bottle was usually<br />
available. Smoke of burning honeycomb was supposed to<br />
be efficacious in drawing out the poison from a rusty nail<br />
wound; a compound of tar, feathers, and brimstone on<br />
hickory coals was considered wonderful for mortifying<br />
flesh. Dropsy could be cured by steeping two handfuls of<br />
inner bark of white elder in two quarts of Lisbon wine for<br />
twenty-four hours, and taking a gill each morning on an<br />
empty stomach. One cancer cure called for the application<br />
to the affected part of a teaspoonful of scrapings from<br />
a brass kettle mixed with mutton suet, same not to be<br />
removed until the patient got well. Boiled or bruised root<br />
of the narrow-leaf dock applied over the sore, with tea of<br />
the same plant taken internall}^ was also recommended.<br />
Fluor volatile alkali was known to have cured apoplexy,<br />
and a mixture of ivory comb scrapings and honey was<br />
considered effective for yellow jaundice, typhus, and<br />
"putrid diseases."<br />
Home remedies and botanical medicines were esteemed<br />
in proportion to their potency or bitterness. <strong>The</strong> old reliable<br />
for general purposes was the bottle of bitters, concocted<br />
according to various favorite recipes from dewberry, crane-
45<br />
bill, wild cherry, yellow poplar, or sarsaparilla— stewed,<br />
crushed, distilled, and combined with witch hazel leaves,<br />
cider, w<strong>his</strong>key or brandy, and sumac or bitter roots.<br />
Another<br />
possibility was a brew of sassafras, burdock, red beets,<br />
and spirits; or the buds of the sweet apple tree, steeped in<br />
rum or cider. Some, of course, swore by sulphur and<br />
treacle, which was not properl}'^ an herb. A favorite of the<br />
Botanies was bruised lobelia and red pepper pods covered<br />
with good w<strong>his</strong>key. Such bitters were good for cholera<br />
infantum, "y^^^^^ janders," pht<strong>his</strong>ic, croup, whooping<br />
cough, colds, coughs, and catarrh. Each spring the mixture<br />
was taken as a tonic to drive the humors out of the<br />
system and purify the blood. (After a winter of corn bread<br />
and pork the blood and "jint water" had to be thinned for<br />
the more active existence anticipated with the coming of<br />
spring. Teas or bitters taken in the autumn might have<br />
disastrous results; if the blood was too thin in winter one<br />
ran a chance of freezing to death.) Those whose faith in<br />
the vegetable remedies was weak might obviate the necessity<br />
of spring purification by wearing a bag of camphor on<br />
the chest over winter, or if t<strong>his</strong> had not been done, by<br />
drinking the waters from the last snow in March, or eating<br />
a few hailstones from the first good storm in spring. <strong>The</strong>n<br />
there was always goose-grease, inside and out, good for<br />
almost anything which the forthcoming season might<br />
bring.<br />
All told there were between two and three hundred of<br />
these simples which constituted the materia medica of the<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong>s.^ One of the first important publications in t<strong>his</strong><br />
field was Dr. Jacob Bigelow's American Medical Botany,<br />
being a Collection of the Native Medicinal Plants of the<br />
United States, Containing their Botanical History and<br />
Chemical Analysis, and Properties and Uses in Medicine,<br />
Diet and the Arts. <strong>The</strong> three volumes, which were published<br />
at Boston, 1817-20, were adorned with sixty fullpage<br />
colored engravings designed and executed by the<br />
author. Almost simultaneously Dr. William Paul Barton<br />
published <strong>his</strong> two-volume Vegetable Materia Medica
44<br />
of the United States or Medical Botany at Philadelphia.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> compendious treatise of botanical descriptions and<br />
medicinal properties of plants indigenous to the United<br />
States was also illustrated with colored plates. Barton did<br />
not vouch for the efficacy of the medicinal properties of<br />
the fifty plants included in <strong>his</strong> study. His comments rarely<br />
extended beyond citations of their uses as domestic <strong>cures</strong>,<br />
such as: "Umbellata as a topical stimulant for domestic<br />
medicine; is used in Delaware for scrofula and rheumatism;<br />
useful for horses"; "Alum-root widely used in the west for<br />
dysentery"; "Dog fennel widely used for hysteria, epilepsy,<br />
dropsy, scrofula, asthma, rheumatism"; "Common blackberry<br />
much used by domestics."<br />
Another was the two-volume Medical Flora; or Manual<br />
of the United States of North America, published at Philadelphia<br />
in 1828-30, by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-<br />
Schmaltz, the eccentric Transylvania naturalist. T<strong>his</strong> work<br />
contained descriptions of medical plants with their "names,<br />
qualities, properties, <strong>his</strong>tory, &c. and notes or remarks on<br />
nearly 500 equivalent substitutes," and was illustrated with<br />
over one hundred drawings. Although Rafinesque also<br />
instituted <strong>his</strong> own system of cure-all, in t<strong>his</strong> work <strong>his</strong> intent<br />
was merely to compile a medical botany which would be<br />
used by physicians and pharmacists of the period. He<br />
stated that "<strong>The</strong>re are many modes of effecting <strong>cures</strong> by<br />
equivalent remedies, but vegetable substances afford the<br />
mildest, most efficient, and most congenial to the human<br />
frame."<br />
Among "105 of the most active and efficient medical<br />
types" he listed: "Black Snake-Root, Botrop<strong>his</strong> Serpentaria<br />
(squaw root) — astringent, diuretic, sudorific, anodyne,<br />
repellent, emenagogue, subtonic &c— to be used for rheumatism,<br />
acute and chronic, to faciUtate parturition, for<br />
sore-throat, dropsy, hysterics. Psora, ague and fever, yellow<br />
fever, snake-bite, diseases of horses and cattle"; "Aralias—<br />
vulnerary, pectoral, sudorific, stimulant, diaphoretic, cordial,<br />
depurative, &c— use roots bruised or chewed or in<br />
poultices for all kinds of wounds and ulcers. Fomentations
45<br />
and catoplasms for cutaneous affections, erysipelas, and<br />
ring-worms. Infusion or decoction, for all diseases of the<br />
blood, syphilitic complaints, chronical rheumatism, local<br />
pains, cardiology, bellyache, &c. Syrups, cordials, decoctions,<br />
&c. have been found useful in coughs, catarrh,<br />
cochexia, languor, pains in the breast, &c. Cordial recommended<br />
for gout, and juice for ear-ache and deafness";<br />
"Common strawberry— diluent, refrigerant, subastringent,<br />
analeptic, diaphoretic, diuretic, pectoral, eccopratic<br />
&c. — useful in fevers, gravel, gout, scurvy, and pht<strong>his</strong>is.<br />
Cooling, promotes perspiration, gives relief in diseases of<br />
the bladder and kidneys . . . possesses also property of<br />
curing chilblains. Fine wine can be made from them."<br />
Since remedies of t<strong>his</strong> sort were so widely used, the art<br />
of simpling or root and herb collecting in the forests and<br />
cultivating in the gardens was a routine activity for many<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong>s, and a part-time vocation for some.<br />
One of the most interesting of the Indian-medicine<br />
books, and the first medical book published in the West,<br />
was Peter Smith's <strong>The</strong> Indian Doctor's Dispensatory, published<br />
at Cincinnati in 1813. Its full title was <strong>The</strong> Indian<br />
Doctor's Dispensatory Being Father Smith's Advice Respecting<br />
Diseases and <strong>The</strong>ir Cures; Consisting of Prescriptions<br />
for Many Complaints: And a Description of<br />
Medicines, Simple and Compound, Showing their Virtues<br />
and Hoiv to Apply <strong>The</strong>m. Designed for the Benefit of<br />
His Children, His Friends and the Public, but more especially<br />
for the Citizens of the Western Parts of the United<br />
States of America. "Having an insatiable taste and constant<br />
desire for relieving the afflicted and diseased," the<br />
author offered t<strong>his</strong> little book to the public for one dollar,<br />
reasoning "that 75 cents would be enough for a common<br />
book of t<strong>his</strong> size" and charging only "25 cents for 50 years<br />
of labor and observation." He would no doubt be surprised<br />
at the price which <strong>his</strong> book commands today, a<br />
hundred thirty years after its publication.<br />
<strong>The</strong> treatise was designed particularly for the citizens<br />
of the West. "<strong>The</strong> natives of our own country are in
46<br />
possession of <strong>cures</strong>, simples, etc., that surpass what is used<br />
by our best practitioners." To simpHfy matters Smith<br />
reduced all diseases to two types: (1) those of plethora and<br />
irritation; (2) those of debility, weakness, and languor.<br />
<strong>The</strong> human body discharged as perspiration "half or more<br />
of all that we eat and drink daily. It would surprise you<br />
« to see t<strong>his</strong> floating all over you, in a state of health, like<br />
water over a piece of watered meadow, and a steam flying<br />
from you in every direction, like your breath on a frosty<br />
morning. ... If the air be cool and clear it will always<br />
have elasticity, as it is called; it will swell and fly back<br />
again easily, when we receive it into our lungs." Whenever<br />
anything upset t<strong>his</strong> salubrious state of affairs. Dr. Smith<br />
was prepared with ninety prescriptions to restore it. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
ranged from the Home Ipecacuanha or Indian Physic to<br />
the famous Leotrill, which he claimed to have got from<br />
Flanders. <strong>The</strong>re were the usual purges, tonics, and poultices,<br />
an interesting concoction for cure of derangement<br />
or mania, and the late discovery, or snail cure, for cancer.<br />
Two prescriptions were rather unusual.^ "Preserving<br />
the teeth, and curing an odious taste in the mouth, may<br />
always, I presume, be affected by t<strong>his</strong> little simple process:<br />
Only wash and rinse your mouth every morning in your<br />
own urine. . . . Relief from the ill taste I have proved, and<br />
I do not think the remedy worse than the disease. Those<br />
who know t<strong>his</strong> in their youth, and will not try it, who can<br />
pity them when they have the tooth-ache!" <strong>The</strong> other, "for<br />
a diarrhaea, or looseness of the belly," was particularly efficacious<br />
and had been given with success to both man and<br />
beast: "Take the yard or pizzle of a buck (get it saved and<br />
dried by a deer hunter) , reduce it to powder, put a spoonful<br />
of the powder in a bottle with a pint of spirits; take<br />
t<strong>his</strong> solution in small quantities, every hour, till relief is<br />
obtained."<br />
Father Smith held the regular doctor in little esteem.<br />
we can do better without calomel than with it,<br />
"Now if<br />
both in debility and plethora; why should we not throw by<br />
the use of it . . . We should always remember, when we
47<br />
are about to take medicine, /'/ the Lord will, we shall do<br />
t<strong>his</strong> or that with success; // ibe Lord luill, I shall get well<br />
by t<strong>his</strong> means or some other." Fantastic though <strong>his</strong> prescriptions<br />
were, <strong>his</strong> thoughts on liygiene and the importance<br />
of light and air were ahead of <strong>his</strong> time.<br />
Better known than Peter Smith's book was that of Dr.<br />
Richard Carter of Kentucky. <strong>The</strong> single-volume first edition<br />
was published in Frankfort in 1815 under the title of<br />
Valuable Vegetable Medical Prescriptions for the cure of<br />
All Nervous and P/itrid Disorders; the rare two-part edition,<br />
published at Versailles in 1825, bears the title A Short<br />
Sketch of the Author^s Life, and Adventures from <strong>his</strong><br />
Youth until 1818, in the First Part. In Part the Second,<br />
A Valuable, Vegetable, Medical Prescription, with a table<br />
of Detergent and Corroborant Medicines to Suit the Treatmejit<br />
of the Different Certificates. T<strong>his</strong> work is a classic,<br />
unequalled for variety, originality, and completeness. Dr.<br />
Carter was a system unto himself— a composite of Indian<br />
medicine, regular practice, poetry, mysticism, advice to<br />
the lovelorn, and Carter.<br />
Part I of t<strong>his</strong> opus, possibly in way of preparation for<br />
the Carter <strong>cures</strong>, stJirts with a discourse on Death and<br />
Resurrection. It then continues with the disconnected lifestory<br />
of the author: He was born on the south branch of<br />
the Potomac in Virginia in 1786. His father was an Englishman<br />
who, according to <strong>his</strong> tale, was regularly "bred to<br />
the practice of physic" in London. <strong>The</strong> senior Carter's first<br />
wife having died, he came to the United States, where an<br />
injury forced him to become a cobbler. He then married<br />
a woman whose mother was half Indian and something of<br />
a doctoress, and in due course of time two children, Richard<br />
and Melinda, arrived.<br />
Young Richard was an unfortunate and disobedient<br />
child. As an infant, while <strong>his</strong> mother worked in the field,<br />
he was occasionally left in a fence corner, where sometimes<br />
<strong>his</strong> clothes froze to the earth. When he began to get around<br />
in the world, so vile was <strong>his</strong> disposition that if the parents<br />
would not gratify <strong>his</strong> whims, he was wont to "fly into a pet
48<br />
SHORT SKETCH OF THE<br />
AND ADVENTURES FROM HIS YOUTH<br />
UNTIL 1818, IN THE FIRST PART.<br />
IN PART THE SECO^fP,<br />
A VALUABLE, VEGETABLE,<br />
MEDICAL PRESCRIPTION, WITH A TABLE OP<br />
DETERGENT AND CORROBORANT<br />
MEDICINES TO SUIT THE TREATMENT OF THE<br />
DIFFERENT CERTIFICATES:<br />
VERSAILLES, KY.<br />
Printed by Johw H. Wilkins, Commonwealth Office.<br />
1825.<br />
'7 flatter myself that I have been as successful as any physician<br />
whatever, who has not had a better opportunity. . . . Courteous<br />
reader, before I close t<strong>his</strong> little book I purpose inserting a few<br />
certificates stating the benefit derived from my medicine . . .<br />
not that I feel disposed to sound my own trumpet . . . but had<br />
I have obtained certificates from all those whom I have healed,<br />
three such books as t<strong>his</strong>, would not have contained them."
49<br />
and gallop around the house on all fores like a tarrlpin, as<br />
hard as I could for several times before I would stop." Although<br />
<strong>his</strong> parents went on for some years together "rejoicing<br />
in harmony and peace," the boy was "as prone to evil<br />
In one of <strong>his</strong> tantrums, while galloping around the<br />
as sparks are to fly upwards." He grew up with few inhibitions.<br />
house with a cat in <strong>his</strong> hands, he became inspired to plunge<br />
the poor animal into a boiling pot of cabbage and bacon.<br />
When he became old enough to observe and reflect, he was<br />
taken to church and to a funeral.<br />
Shortly thereafter, when<br />
caught preaching to the cats, he was so chagrined that he<br />
took one out and buried it alive.<br />
Since by t<strong>his</strong> time he had a knowledge of right and<br />
wrong, he realized that he was a very bad boy. He repented<br />
and resolved to do better, but soon was wallowing in the<br />
mire again. Evil companions made matters worse. Once<br />
when the boys were playing, a cousin threw a pet owl onto<br />
a horse, which in its fright kicked an orphan boy "and<br />
broke the rim of <strong>his</strong> belly," so that the boy died. At another<br />
time young Carter got flogged by an old woman for stealing<br />
<strong>his</strong> mother's cream and felt that it did as much good "as<br />
a dose of medicine would a sick person." <strong>The</strong> cure was not<br />
permanent, however, for soon thereafter he stuck a knife<br />
in a horse's leg, and when the horse kicked him in the<br />
head, blood ran from <strong>his</strong> nose, mouth, and ears. Whereupon<br />
he decided that "Wit is best if not bought too dear,"<br />
and later proceeded to write a poem about the event.<br />
At the age of twelve "Devil Dick" accompanied <strong>his</strong><br />
father to Baltimore, where he saw a gang of convicts at<br />
work. He was so deeply impressed by the sight that he<br />
reflected that if hell were as bad as the penitentiary, he<br />
would pray to Almighty God that He keep everyone out<br />
of it and that "we be directed into an honest path and like<br />
good Republicans provide well for our families ."<br />
. . .<br />
In moving to a better farm the Carter family almost<br />
starved for a spell, but greater plenty came with time.<br />
Richard went to school to a good teacher but had an inclination<br />
to quarrel and fight. <strong>The</strong> teacher used the rod to no
50<br />
effect, then made the wicked pupil stand on a block for<br />
an hour at a time, pointing <strong>his</strong> finger at a certain hole in<br />
the wall, "but t<strong>his</strong> done no good." He regretted that he did<br />
not get more severely lined out, for early discipline saved<br />
many a man from a bad end. "<strong>The</strong> reader will discover by<br />
t<strong>his</strong> that when a child is whipped and receives not enough<br />
to humble it, the rod does more harm than good."<br />
By t<strong>his</strong> time <strong>his</strong> mother was "kissing black betty" rather<br />
frequently; so was vile Dick. Once when she came home<br />
"three sheets in the wind" her husband shut the door on<br />
her. When she broke it down with an axe, the husband got<br />
out the shotgun. <strong>The</strong> boy grabbed at the gun, whereupon<br />
it went off and blew a hole in the door, but stopped neither<br />
mother nor son from drinking. "What a hard spectacle is<br />
the drunkard" Liquor "inflames the blood; causes the eyes<br />
to be sore; it causes dropsies, gouts, scolding wives, empty<br />
dishes, naked children, weedy cornfields, bad fences, hollow-horned<br />
cows, broken shins, bruised heads, black eyes,<br />
bloody noses, empty purses and bad reputations." <strong>The</strong> only<br />
blessing was, if one did not hug the bottle it could never<br />
prove a Delila.<br />
But like the old lady "who was in the habit of kissing<br />
black betty very frequently, until she began to pat her<br />
foot, and at last she would cry out reach me the bottle<br />
John, for the more I drink the better I feel," Devil Dick<br />
was a willing repeater. When about fifteen he got drunk,<br />
went to sleep in a chestnut tree, and never knew how he<br />
got down. Scared, he swore off, but somewhat later went<br />
to a frolic, was tempted and succumbed, so went to an old<br />
house to sleep under the straw. Shortly a couple came and<br />
sat on him; "<strong>The</strong>y talked and sported for some time."<br />
After the man left, the woman became greatly frightened<br />
when the undercover visitor was forced to crawl out.<br />
At the time of writing <strong>his</strong> life Carter stated that he had<br />
never been beastly drunk but three times. "<strong>The</strong> last time I<br />
lay limber for the space of three hours without a hope<br />
being entertained by the spectators of my recovery. But I<br />
recovered, and then I vowed never to drink any more spir-
'<br />
ituous licquors, unless I was by myself or in company; and<br />
not then unless I chose, and I have found it just as good<br />
a promise as I could make."<br />
Carter eased up on drinking, but was still a refractory<br />
sinner. Caught smothering and hanging "rabits" he was<br />
sent by <strong>his</strong> father to witness the hanging of a man. When<br />
two old women came to see <strong>his</strong> sick father he routed them<br />
over a log by a yellowjackets' nest. <strong>The</strong> log broke, the<br />
yellowjackets attacked with fury, and altogether it was<br />
a delightful affair. But God got even, for soon thereafter<br />
Carter fell from a high chimney on which he was working,<br />
and practically killed himself. As a result he began to think<br />
of <strong>his</strong> Soul's eternal welfare; he visited grave yards and<br />
saw ".that there was as many graves shorter as there was<br />
longer than myself." He contemplated death.<br />
<strong>The</strong> father lingered on until fall, and then expired.<br />
51<br />
"I then to reading did betake,<br />
And all my idle tuays forsake;<br />
And many a book perused by night,<br />
Served to instrtict and to delight.—<br />
Thus I gained the art to heal,<br />
Which t<strong>his</strong> book to you'll reveal.<br />
Thousands have I eased of pain.<br />
My labours hard and small m-y gain."<br />
But serious effort soon proved dull, so the youth began<br />
"rambling through the world, by which I learned a different<br />
view of things." He met, fell in love with, and became<br />
engaged to a young woman, half Indian. He went home<br />
to arrange some business, then returned "to execute my<br />
contract with the girl whom I loved to the highest degree<br />
of superiorigation." (He submitted a poem of eleven stanzas<br />
as additional evidence.) But Providence intervened, for<br />
Carter became ill and the six-months' absence had been too<br />
much; she had married another. "When we met, we both<br />
cried heartily, and parted."
52<br />
Followed more wandering. At Lynchburg he first saw<br />
the smallpox and was impressed. After almost drowning<br />
on the way home, he again entered school and applied himself<br />
for two six-months' terms. He then went to live with<br />
an uncle on the "headwaters of Marietta." Here for several<br />
months he studied botany—the power and use of herbs.<br />
Several more months he spent with an "Indian Doctoress"<br />
and an Indian doctor who possessed "great skill in pulsation."<br />
Under these preceptors the student worked hard;<br />
also at night in books left by <strong>his</strong> father, "applying myself so<br />
intensively . . . that I was very near producing a caterack<br />
in my eyes." He had a good memory and retained much of<br />
what he was taught.<br />
On returning from a trip to Carolina, Carter, as a result<br />
of wading many streams, lost <strong>his</strong> health. Soreness in the<br />
breast and swelling in the stomach alternated with dysentery<br />
and prolonged constipation. Some thought he was<br />
poisoned. Neither an Indian doctor nor a local practitioner<br />
could help. <strong>The</strong> sufferer's pulse was about gone and so was<br />
he, when another doctor applied a "glister ... of green<br />
bitter gord guts," whereupon he shortly passed a<br />
"gallon<br />
of blood and corruption," and, though the doctor predicted<br />
he would die about midnight, proceeded to live. Months<br />
of torture followed. A water doctor told him <strong>his</strong> liver was<br />
destroyed and that he was bound to die. "It is an awful<br />
thing to reflect on seeing our friends lingering around our<br />
bed, waiting to take their final farewell— to feel your<br />
tongue cleave to the rough of your mouth, and the blood<br />
settling under your nales— your cheeks pale, your lips<br />
blue, and your hands clinched, and your breathing perceptibly<br />
growing shorter."<br />
With nerves weakened, pains and running sores in the<br />
chest, sores on the hips, inward fevers, dysentery, tremblings<br />
in the lungs, and a palpitating heart, the patient was<br />
in a fairly bad way. Mercury given by a physician he threw<br />
away, but a friend skilled in herbs prescribed a brew of<br />
dewberry briar roots, burdock roots, wild cherry bark,
53<br />
inside bark of sassafras, and white ash tops. T<strong>his</strong> he used<br />
for a regular drink, with essence of peppermint on going<br />
to bed. <strong>The</strong> blood was enlivened and nerves twitched and<br />
jerked. <strong>The</strong> hip sores were treated with powder of burnt<br />
mussel shells and sweet oil. Poultices of "beat mustard<br />
seed" were applied to wrists, "ancles," and feet, and an<br />
Indian sweat treatment taken by way of steam from "a<br />
point of w<strong>his</strong>key and a point of strong vinegar," mixed<br />
and poured over hot stones in a pit. T<strong>his</strong> stopped the nervejerking<br />
and relieved some of the pains.<br />
Remaining stiffness<br />
in the joints was removed by an ointment of camomile<br />
flowers, goldenrod, flowers of pinks, pine beans, and double<br />
tanzy boiled down and mixed with sweet oil. For the still<br />
present dizziness, aching, and such, a drink made of the<br />
bark of dogwood roots, rue, pine tops, black snake root,<br />
rusty iron, and apple cider was used, the patient meanwhile<br />
abstaining from cider, bacon, sweet milk, and cabbage.<br />
<strong>The</strong> bloating, night sweats, bad appetite, and dysentery<br />
now disappeared, yet there remained a soreness in the breast<br />
for three years.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n began a stomach ache, "dispepsy," flatulency, and<br />
dry tickling cough. T<strong>his</strong> condition was met with a dosage<br />
of tar and saltpeter in good rye w<strong>his</strong>key, with glauber salts,<br />
oyster shell lime, and a bit of stone-coal dust in water, on<br />
the side.<br />
Again in tolerably good health. Carter sold <strong>his</strong> land and<br />
moved to Botetourt County, where he set up shop "and got<br />
a pretty good run of custom." When after a few months<br />
<strong>his</strong> health again became impaired, he moved to Lincoln<br />
County, Kentucky. He had resolved to withhold <strong>his</strong> medical<br />
skill from the public, but having cured a neighbor's<br />
Negro woman, he was started again. In time so extensive<br />
practice become that two to four active students<br />
did <strong>his</strong><br />
could hardly administer the preparation of medicines and<br />
write the prescriptions. Experience taught him one important<br />
principle:
54<br />
'Since man, to man, is so unjust<br />
'Tis hard to know, whom I may trust;<br />
Fve trusted many, to my sorrow.<br />
So pay today, I'll trust tomorroiu."<br />
Operating on t<strong>his</strong> plan he managed to "squeeze through the<br />
world pretty well; generally having money enough to pay<br />
my debts, and wherewithall to support my family."<br />
No doubt part of Carter's interest in medicine came<br />
from <strong>his</strong> own ailments and injuries; off and on he seemed<br />
to enjoy rather general poor health. At one time or another<br />
he was nearly frozen, drowned, and "crushed into atoms<br />
by a rolling log"; he was shot while duck hunting; suffered<br />
a cut artery, and nearly fell into the river when he fainted<br />
from the effects; had the "main leader and small leg bone<br />
cut"; had "three several attacks of bilious fever"; had<br />
"disentary"; was "three times severely afflicted with the<br />
flux"; and suffered from the ennui or hypo— "in fact died<br />
away three times." As he summarized it at the age of thirty-nine:<br />
"My life, indeed, is an eventful one of afflictions,<br />
accidents and misfortunes."<br />
"When first in nature's form I came,<br />
My mental powers confined;<br />
By all mankind, 1 was the least,<br />
But could not be resin'd,<br />
''E'en from an early stage of life.<br />
My trials have been great;<br />
Surrounded I have been with strife,<br />
Which still indeed's fny fate.<br />
"My parents they were very poor,<br />
When I their child was born;<br />
<strong>The</strong>y had not much for to bestow.<br />
On me their only son.
55<br />
"<strong>The</strong>y laboured hard their son to raise,<br />
In credit and renoivn;<br />
But never I deserved much praise.<br />
But their most bitter frown.<br />
"I turned myself about to see;<br />
What danger I was in;<br />
I cried Oh Lord! mine's cruel fate,<br />
I've lived so long in sin.<br />
"I then beheld the scene I'd past,<br />
Of life's short narrow space;<br />
And tToat I soon imist occupy,<br />
yiy own appointed place.<br />
"To ascertain the state of m.an,<br />
yiy thoughts began to soar;<br />
I thought my life tuas but a span.<br />
And I shoidd be no more.<br />
"And then it tvas I did converse,<br />
With nature and with art;<br />
You are my friends while here on earth,<br />
But soon we'll have to part.<br />
"<strong>The</strong>n lend to me your friendly aid.<br />
Give sight tmto my eyes;<br />
That I 7nay gain the chiefest life<br />
Which never fades and dies.<br />
"<strong>The</strong>re's nothing here that's worth otir care,<br />
Compared to that above;<br />
<strong>The</strong>n let us view the things m^ore near.<br />
And live in perfect love.<br />
"For few and evil are the days.<br />
Of m^an while here on earth;
56<br />
Yet eagerly each one displays,<br />
His talents from <strong>his</strong> birth.<br />
"But could we turn our thoughts from nice<br />
To that which is more dear;<br />
How soon would virtue us entice,<br />
And evil banish far.<br />
"1 do desire to live in peace.<br />
Which God doth justify;<br />
And may my usefulness increase<br />
Until the day I die.<br />
"7 know it is m-y hearts delight.<br />
To do what good I can;<br />
As far as God has gave m^e sight<br />
rll heal the sons of man."<br />
Dr. Carter in part I, following the sketch of <strong>his</strong> life,<br />
dealt with such subjects as: "Directions for Gardening,"<br />
"Of Signs from the Pulse," "Of the Bad Effects of Mercurials,"<br />
"<strong>The</strong> Morbid Effects of Poisons in the Air," "Of<br />
Signs from the Urine and Other Excretions," "Of the<br />
Crisis," "Remedy for Weak Nerves, Rheumatisms, &c,"<br />
"Internal Dropsy of the Brain," "I Here Insert a Few<br />
Recipes," "For the Yellow Jaundice," "For the Fever and<br />
Ague," "For Convulsive Fits, Palsys, Appoplexy's, &c,"<br />
"For the Hysterics," "On the Hypocondriacs," "For Old<br />
Running Sore Legs," "For the Consumption," "For the<br />
Stomach Ach, &c, &:c," "A Caution to those who drink<br />
Mineral Water," "Of the Urine" (which included poetry<br />
to the tune of Yankee Doodle), "Indian Lexicon," "<strong>The</strong><br />
Best of Wives" (Poem), and "Gutta Serena." <strong>The</strong> illustrations<br />
of certain nefarious characters from the canine world<br />
which he added, gave further opportunity for moralizing.
57<br />
SNAP.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> dog is very outrageous. And I think from<br />
name, ways and actions, is a relation of Siy's. He is<br />
not so old in name or nature; but does much mischief<br />
in our land; he barks at every thing. We hear <strong>his</strong> whining<br />
and barking, and growling against laws, against<br />
rights, against widows, orphans, men and their wives;<br />
setting every thing in an uproar. We hear the sound iii<br />
the pulpit, with different pcrsuasiDus. We hear the<br />
sound at <strong>The</strong> bar; he barks loudest when there is no danger<br />
near; he is like a wolf or a bear, he can change <strong>his</strong><br />
voice according to season. When you are with him, he<br />
seems as innocent as a dove, but when you arc out of<br />
sight, he compasses you round. If he bites you there is<br />
a poison under <strong>his</strong> tongue that's sweeter than honey, and<br />
as strong as a lion. When you are in your bed at night<br />
reposing on your pillow of rest, he is baying of you,<br />
£veD those in their graves do not escape him.<br />
<strong>The</strong> rich he will flatter.<br />
<strong>The</strong> poor he'll dispise;<br />
"<strong>The</strong>re has many young women been destroyed the remainder<br />
part of their lives by the sound of <strong>his</strong> voice. . . . Sometimes he<br />
moves a man and wife, to strive, and take each others life.<br />
Sometimes friends he brakes asunder, alarms poor females with<br />
bold thunder. A great deal more I have been told, he done to<br />
folks in times of old."<br />
<strong>The</strong> versatile Dr. Carter probably executed <strong>his</strong> own woodcuts<br />
as well as the poetry.
58<br />
Carter's compendium of <strong>cures</strong>— omitting the poetry —<br />
was contained in <strong>his</strong> sixty-three "receipts," several of which<br />
were usually prescribed for the same ill. <strong>The</strong> doctor or<br />
patient might try a number of them on the theory, perhaps,<br />
that one might hit the jackpot. Most of the preparations<br />
required a bit of doing. Some were apparently<br />
intended for practitioners, others for home dispensing.<br />
Since they are so representative of remedies of t<strong>his</strong> type,<br />
three are herewith reproduced in full:<br />
"RECEIPT THE 22nd: Fill a twenty gallon kettle with<br />
sliced elecampane roots, and boil them well in water, pour<br />
off the sirop and fill the kettle with water again, and boil the<br />
same roots the second time, pour off the sirop as before, then<br />
clean your kettle and strain all your sirop through a flannel<br />
cloth, into it, and boil it down to about eight gallons and a<br />
half, then strain it into your barrel. <strong>The</strong>n get green comphry<br />
slice fine and fill a ten gallon pot with it, and boil it<br />
down in the same way, until you have about six gallons of<br />
sirop, then strain it and add it to the same barrel. <strong>The</strong>n boil<br />
half a bushel of angelica roots well to a gallon of sirop,<br />
strain it and add it to the barrel. <strong>The</strong>n fill a twenty gallon<br />
pot full of life-everlasting, boil it well in the same way,<br />
down to two gallons, and add that to the barrel after you<br />
strain it well. <strong>The</strong>n boil thirty gallons of spikenard roots in<br />
the same way, down to six gallons of sirop, strain it and add<br />
it to the barrel. <strong>The</strong>n boil ten gallons of the roots and tops<br />
of ground ivy well, strain the sirop in a tub. <strong>The</strong>n boil five<br />
gallons of white plaintain leaves well, and strain the sirop<br />
in the tub with the other. <strong>The</strong>n boil the same quantity of<br />
heart leaves— in the same way, and strain the sirop in the<br />
same tub. <strong>The</strong>n put the whole of the contents of the tub<br />
in a vessel and boil it down to two gallons and add it to<br />
the barrel. <strong>The</strong>n fill a ten gallon pot full of the bark of<br />
the roots of yellow poplar, and boil it down and strain it,<br />
and then reduce it to two gallons, and strain it in the barrel.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n fill a five gallon pot with mullen roots and boil and<br />
strain it as the rest were done and then strain it in the<br />
barrel, when it is reduced to half a gallon. T<strong>his</strong> makes in
59<br />
all twenty-eight gallons, to which you must add five gallons<br />
and a half of good clean honey, a quart of good Madeira<br />
wine, a pound of pulverised columbo, a pint of the elixer<br />
of vitroil, and ten gallons of good apple cider (after boiling<br />
it down to five.) <strong>The</strong>n let it work well and settle, and<br />
if it is too sharp or strong for the patient, you may add<br />
more honey. <strong>The</strong>re will be agreeable to t<strong>his</strong> arrangement<br />
about forty gallons, about thirty of which, is pure medicine.<br />
<strong>The</strong> dose may be varied as necessity requires, from<br />
half a table spoonful to a table spoonful, and in most cases<br />
should be given morning, noon and night, and in pulminary<br />
complaints, coughs, &c. a tea spoonful of Hnseed<br />
oil, sweet oil, or dog's oil should be added to each dose; but<br />
if the patient's stomach will not bear it, fresh butter<br />
warmed, and neither washed nor salted will make a very<br />
good substitute. T<strong>his</strong> medicine is wonderfully ejSficacious<br />
in all cases of consumptions, pht<strong>his</strong>ics, hooping cough,<br />
measles, a cough proceeding from the last stages of a fever,<br />
and a cough proceeding from the dropsey. <strong>The</strong> patient<br />
should not make use of any salted hog meat, sweet milk,<br />
cider nor spirits, but may be permitted to use fresh shoat,<br />
beef, chickens, squirrels, mutton, panado, rice, buttermilk,<br />
and a little water and wine.<br />
"RECEIPT THE 23rd: Get thirty gallons of good strong<br />
apple cider, and put three table spoonfuls of ground black<br />
mustard seed, and a handful of beat horse radish roots to<br />
every quart, and three pound of salt petre to the thirty<br />
gallons. Fill a ten gallon pot full of dried elecampane roots,<br />
and boil them well in water, strain the sirop, and boil the<br />
same roots the second time in the same way, strain the two<br />
sirops together, and boil it down to four gallons, add it to<br />
the cider, then add a gallon of parsley roots, and let it<br />
stand about ten days and it is fit for use, and may be given<br />
in doses from the contents of half a table spoonful to a<br />
table spoonful, which may be given three times per day,<br />
and in severe chronic complaints, may be increased to two<br />
table spoonfuls three times per day. <strong>The</strong> diet of the patient<br />
should be light and cooling, and consequently he or she
60<br />
should abstain from the use of sweet milk, strong cofifee,<br />
and rusty bacon, and keep out of wet, damp or night air,<br />
but breathe freely in the open morning air. T<strong>his</strong> medicine<br />
and regimen is good in cases of sciatic gouts, rheumatisms,<br />
palsies, ague, apoplexies, convulsive fits, gravel, dropsies."<br />
"RECEIPT THE 41st: Fill a twenty-five gallon still<br />
with elecampane roots and water, distill it and preserve the<br />
proceeds, then fill the still with spikenard roots and water,<br />
and still it in the same way, and in like manner preserve<br />
t<strong>his</strong>, then fill the still with horehound, and treat it likewise,<br />
then run off two still fulls of ground ivy in the same way,<br />
after which clean the still, and put back all the liquid that<br />
has been extracted from all those herbs and roots above<br />
mentioned, and add five gallons of good w<strong>his</strong>key, run it off<br />
as you would in making w<strong>his</strong>key and save it as long as there<br />
appears to be any strength in it. <strong>The</strong>n put it in a cag, and to<br />
every gallon add half a gallon of honey, a table spoonful of<br />
refined nitre, a table spoonful of dried pulverised Indian<br />
turnip, and a pint of middling strong lie made of the ashes<br />
of dry cow dung.<br />
"<strong>The</strong>n get a peck of poUepody, a peck of cinquefril, and<br />
a peck of white plantain; put these into a pot and boil them<br />
well in water, strain it, add three gallons of cider to it, boil<br />
it<br />
down to three gallons, and to every gallon of t<strong>his</strong> add a<br />
quart of the above sirop. T<strong>his</strong> medicine may either be taken<br />
in a little wine and water, or new milk. We give from half<br />
a tablespoonful, to a wine glass full, three times per day,<br />
during which time the patient must not eat any thing high<br />
seasoned, strong nor sweet, and he should be very careful<br />
that he does not take cold or even heat <strong>his</strong> blood. It is best<br />
to commence with small doses at first, and increase the dose<br />
as the patient's strength increases. T<strong>his</strong> medicine is not at<br />
all dangerous unless you give too much for the patient's<br />
strength.<br />
If t<strong>his</strong> medicine causes the patient to sweat, produces<br />
a soreness in the breast, or increases the cough, you<br />
may know that it is too strong, and consequently it must be<br />
weakened with honey until those symptoms abate. T<strong>his</strong> is<br />
good to break any fever, and is excellent in the last stages
of the consumption, pht<strong>his</strong>ic, and the cold plague. If the<br />
cough is very hard add to every dose a tea spoonful of sweet<br />
or linseed oil.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> herbs and roots that you are herein directed to distill,<br />
will not produce as well in the heat of summer, as they<br />
will in the spring or fall, so by these directions, you may<br />
know how to regulate it so as to get all the strength and<br />
should not run it too far."<br />
In keeping with the Carter practice of breaking the heavy<br />
scientific content with a bit of variety we here insert "a<br />
small peace solely intended to divert and refresh the mind."<br />
THE BEST OF WIVES<br />
61<br />
"A Tfian once had a vicious wife,<br />
<strong>The</strong> most uncommon thing in life,<br />
Whose days and nights were spent in strife,<br />
Unceasing.<br />
"Her tongue went glibly all the day long,<br />
Sweet contradiction still her song.<br />
And all the poor man said was wrong.<br />
And ill done.<br />
"From a truce without doors or tvithin,<br />
From speeches long as statesmen spin.<br />
To rest from- her eternal din.<br />
He found not.<br />
"He every soothing art displayed,<br />
Tri'd of what stuff her back tvas -made.<br />
Failing in all to Heaven he prayed.<br />
To take her.<br />
"Once walking by a river side.<br />
In Tnournful terms m-y dear he cri'd.<br />
Let no vtore feuds our peace divide,<br />
Fll end them.
^<br />
62<br />
''So tie my hands as fast behind<br />
As art and nature both combin'dy<br />
<strong>The</strong>n to my fate Vll be resigned,<br />
While drowning.<br />
^^With eager haste the daine complies,<br />
While joy stands glistening in her eyes,<br />
While in her thoughts her husband dies.<br />
Before her.<br />
"But when I vieiv the rolling tide,<br />
Nature revolts, he said beside,<br />
I would not be a suicide,<br />
And die thus.<br />
"While here I stand upon the brink.<br />
If I was in soon 1 should sink,<br />
So p7Lsh me in, nay never shrink.<br />
But do it.<br />
"Her ill designs now to perfect,<br />
Some tjventy yards she ran direct.<br />
To give the blow the more effect,<br />
And drown him.<br />
"But he being far more ivise than brave,<br />
Did slip aside himself to save.<br />
So siuce she dashes in the ivave.<br />
Of water.<br />
"Dear husband help! I sink she cri'd,<br />
Thou best of wives the man replie'd,<br />
I ivould but you my hands have ti'd,<br />
God help you."<br />
For fever and ague the Carter cure called for a mixture<br />
of calomel (unusual for the vegetable doctor), salt peter,<br />
Jesuit bark, pulverized columbo, elixir of vitriol, spirits of
63<br />
niter, and a pill of steel dust. At the same time blister plasters<br />
should be applied to the patient's wrists and ankles and<br />
an opened young pullet to the soles of the feet.<br />
Rheumatism, Dr. Carter believed, "proceeds from the<br />
congress and mutual effervency of salts, which are of a<br />
different origin and nature, viz. of the fi salt arising from<br />
the blood, and of the acid salt coming from the nervous<br />
liquor, the subjects of both of which salts are superfluous<br />
dregs, deposed from the aforesaid humours, forced into<br />
certain teogescencies, and discharge sometimes on one part,<br />
and then on another of the system; wherefore, that the<br />
disease may be cured, let both the turgescercies of the<br />
humours be appeased, and their superfluous dregs be purged<br />
forth, and let the salts degenerated both ways, be reduced<br />
to a state of valatility."<br />
For a disease with so simple a cause the cure would be a<br />
poultice of slippery elm, poke root, Jamestown weed leaves,<br />
woodbine root, and rye meal; after a few days t<strong>his</strong> should<br />
be followed by an ointment brewed from tanzy leaves, red<br />
pepper, tobacco, pine roots, elder roots, rum, neats foot oil,<br />
salt peter, laudanum, and a pint of red fishing worms. An<br />
accompanying drink was made of dogwood and "sasapharilla"<br />
roots combined with w<strong>his</strong>key.<br />
A gentle massage of dog oil was even more highly recommended.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> brew, "For the gout rheumatisms, cramps,<br />
infirmities of the sinews, joints, &c" was simple to make<br />
and use. One had only to:<br />
"Take a young fat dog and kill him, scald and clean him<br />
as you would a pig, then extract <strong>his</strong> guts through a hole<br />
previously made in <strong>his</strong> side, and substitute in the place<br />
thereof, two handfuls of nettles, two ounces of brimstone,<br />
one dozen hen eggs, four ounces of turpentine, a handful<br />
of tanzy, a pint of red fishing worms, and about threefourths<br />
of a pound of tobacco, cut up fine; mix all those<br />
ingredients well together before deposited in the dogs belly,<br />
and then sew up the whole, then roast him well before a<br />
hot fire, save the oil, annoint the joints, and weak parts<br />
before the fire as hot as you can bear it, being careful not
64<br />
to get wet or expose yourself to damp or night air, or even<br />
heating yourself, or in fact you should not expose yourself<br />
in any way."<br />
At dropsy Dr. Carter was a whiz. <strong>The</strong>re was the case of<br />
Mrs. Ruth Wray, who was "taken with the dropsey,<br />
(or<br />
rather in the winter) I first was taken with a pain in my<br />
Wright side, which still increased more and more as also did<br />
the swelling. I was in such a condition that I thought I<br />
never should recover. . .<br />
." Though "Dr. Rush advised<br />
sea bathing, travelling, sudden surprise, or scareing the<br />
patient," Carter tackled the disease with an ointment of<br />
camomile flowers and fresh butter and dosage of horseradish<br />
roots, parsley roots, mustard seed, refined niter and<br />
a "small handfull of alicumpane" put down in hard cider.<br />
Lest the treatment be not effective and swelling return, the<br />
doctor recommended a flock of other mixtures including<br />
burnt egg shells strained through a silk handkerchief and<br />
mixed with jalap and cream of tartar. "And with t<strong>his</strong><br />
regimen, medicine and treatment, she soon became sound<br />
and well."<br />
^'Behold a female in distress<br />
Afflicted with the ascites,<br />
Her system sweWd and racked with pain.<br />
While she upon her bed is lain;<br />
<strong>The</strong> Doctors they have had their will,<br />
While Doctresses have tried their skill.<br />
And yet the patient's grotcing worse,<br />
So what to do they're at a loss;<br />
Observe the last alternative.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y all agree she cannot live;<br />
So then to me she is conveyed,<br />
To see if I could give her aid;<br />
With all my might to tvork I taent.<br />
And used my skill to the extent;<br />
And through God's mercy did direct.<br />
<strong>The</strong> means which did a cure perfect;<br />
So notwithstanding I'm abused
65<br />
And by sofjte folks my means refused,<br />
Yet as God calls me I rem^ain<br />
Rebuking both disease and pain."<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there was the case of Mrs. Sarah Lasure, whose<br />
testimonial was attested by seven citizens good and true:<br />
"I DO CERTIFY, That in the year of our Lord 1810 that<br />
I was taken with the dropsy, and became very low. I sent<br />
for a Doctor, and mended a little, but never left me, but<br />
still grew worse for two years . . . and my feet and legs<br />
swelled to that degree that they bursted and run a great<br />
deal .... When I commenced taking medicine of Doctor<br />
Carter I was about fifty years of age, and since that I have<br />
had a fine daughter. ... I do certify that I also had a<br />
daughter who had a white swelling in her leg, which was<br />
hollow from the knee to the ancle, and out of which<br />
came sixteen pieces of bone, and t<strong>his</strong> same Doctor Carter<br />
attended on her and she has got nearly well, so that it don't<br />
hinder at all from walking."<br />
"T<strong>his</strong> woman, aged fifty years,<br />
<strong>The</strong> dropsy had, as it appears;<br />
Who was laid low and almost gone,<br />
Until her legs did burst and run.<br />
"While at the point of death she lay,<br />
Withotit the hope of the next day;<br />
<strong>The</strong>n by God's blessiitg and my skill,<br />
She tvas restored, sound and well.<br />
"Observe the means which I did give,<br />
Has almost made the dying live;<br />
And from affliction now has free'd,<br />
And m-ade t<strong>his</strong> aged woman breed."<br />
Fits caused by worms in children should be cured by<br />
Carolina pinkroot stewed in water and sweetened with<br />
honey. Dr. Carter suggested, however, that it was "best to
66<br />
add to each dose about one-eighth of an ounce of manna;<br />
the importance of which addition, will appear when it is<br />
remarked, that the pink root is poisonous, and if given in<br />
too large quantities, k<strong>ills</strong> the child to whom it is given."<br />
Alloes, Jesuit bark, bear's foot, table salt, wormwood, garlic,<br />
and wormseed made an effective bitters. Calomel either<br />
by itself or combined with jalap to the tune of five to<br />
thirty grains for the child, gun powder on an empty stomach,<br />
red onions **beat fine" and bound to the navel, iron<br />
rust in hard cider, or steel filings in honey, all had at different<br />
times proved their merits— even once to the extent of<br />
destroying a long-standing ten and one-half foot tapeworm<br />
of an old sea captain.<br />
Ordinary fits, such as those with which Sarah Silvey<br />
would die away "about every full and change of the moon"<br />
were nicely handled by a simple routine treatment. First<br />
jalap and chicken soup while abstaining from cold water,<br />
milk, and hog meat; then tonic of columbo roots, orange<br />
peelings, "jentian" roots, camomile flowers, and "beaver<br />
castor" stewed in Madeira wine. After ten days of t<strong>his</strong>,<br />
foot- and leg-baths in a strong ooze of iron weed roots,<br />
tanzy, "hoarhound," and spicewood were given on alternate<br />
days. As the spasms became more infrequent, calomel<br />
and alloes were administered, followed by castor oil, powdered<br />
birch bark, fennel seed, and pechoon roots in hard<br />
cider; meanwhile the patient's abdomen was rubbed with<br />
camomile flowers melted in unsalted butter. <strong>The</strong> fits disappeared<br />
but the ensuing colic had to be treated with p<strong>ills</strong><br />
made from asafoetida, alloes, rhubarb, and spirits. <strong>The</strong>reupon<br />
Sarah Silvey was restored to perfect health and her<br />
doctor hoped she would become an affectionate bride, "not<br />
only for company sake, but to promote health." Anticipating<br />
the event, he felt induced to insert a few lines:<br />
ON A WEDDING NIGHT<br />
"O call the bridegroom to the bride<br />
All decked in her beauteous pride;
(J<br />
May all the pleasures and the sti^eets,<br />
Which does attend the genial sheets;<br />
And Hymen's chains and loving bands,<br />
Be now resigned into their hands.<br />
And may soft joys now them re-wed^<br />
And be the curtains of their bed;<br />
And Tnay fair honour and delight,<br />
Now crown their day, and grace their night<br />
While thus their oft repeated kisses,<br />
Unite in both their happy wishes;<br />
And may the mild embrace of love,<br />
Be soft and sweet as Venus' dove.<br />
But oh! the raptures of that night,<br />
What sweet concussions of delight;<br />
Now in each other's arms involved.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y lay confounded and dissolved;<br />
Body's mingled, sexes blending.<br />
Which shall be the ^nost cojttending;<br />
Darting fierce and flaming kisses.<br />
Thus plunged into boundless blesses."<br />
Dr. Carter was at <strong>his</strong> best on the ennui or hypo. T<strong>his</strong><br />
dread disease manifested itself by feelings of dullness, fear,<br />
indefinite pains, and lack of desire to attend to any business.<br />
When one had it, he "felt disposed to be retired," to tell<br />
<strong>his</strong> troubles, and to feel that he was afflicted with any<br />
disease which anyone else had. Carter did not diagnose t<strong>his</strong><br />
affliction as a real disorder unconnected with any other, for<br />
it made its appearance only when the "system was released<br />
from any cause; such as hard drink, colds, fevers, dropsies,<br />
gouts, night air, loss of sleep, incessant studying, loss of<br />
friends, and scolding companions." He reasoned that the<br />
body and mind were so inseparably connected that one<br />
could not suffer without the other's participating. <strong>The</strong><br />
idea that the complaint was entirely of the mind was<br />
erroneous. "My opinion of the hypo is, that it is very hard<br />
to exterminate, when it has once taken good hold, it<br />
becomes ingratiated, and is in a measure second nature."
6$<br />
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ihe i:y5:er:j5 :^-5:eric5 :: Dr. Ca.r:er ir.z 'r^ <strong>pioneer</strong><br />
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loODsJ"'!:' -ere -is zr.i:'.! --':-- -::: :::- :n -:::: ::<br />
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<strong>The</strong><br />
c•_:i^:.: c:_^i 'i-.-r izzzrr. : .:.ztz :r. :::; ze..y. T'e coctor<br />
exp-.imci :.'.;: r. : c:u:: zz.t pizunz "nad eat a great many
—<br />
eggs in <strong>his</strong><br />
69<br />
time, which had collected and hatched; which<br />
explanation entirely satisfied the patient, and in a short<br />
time he was as well as ever he was in <strong>his</strong> life; but never<br />
could be prevailed on to eat another egg." Dr. Carter once<br />
heard of a man "who became so desperately in love with a<br />
young woman, that on her denying him, (although he had<br />
ever been considered a prudent man, and managed <strong>his</strong><br />
estate well,)<br />
yet he became so extravagant, as to patiently<br />
sit for three months on a goose egg. If t<strong>his</strong> was not the<br />
hypo, it was very much like it, if not worse."<br />
One of the worst cases of hypo recorded was that of an<br />
old urine doctor who, feeling bad, set aside a specimen to<br />
be examined after it had settled. While he was out of the<br />
office a woman "who imagined from circumstances that<br />
she was in a state of pregnancy" decided t<strong>his</strong> would be a<br />
good time to find out. "She therefore discharged the phial<br />
of its contents, and filled it up with her own water.<br />
When the Doctor returned (not suspecting any thing of<br />
what had transpired,) <strong>his</strong> consternation was inexpressible<br />
to find from the appearance of the urine, that he was in a<br />
state of pregnancy, and found [from] the organization and<br />
structure of <strong>his</strong> system he saw no chance of delivery. He<br />
became almost frantic at the discovery, and nothing saved<br />
him absolute dispair, but the discovery of the real facts, as<br />
they transpired."<br />
In a somewhat similar mistake the embarrassing situation<br />
was solved by a bit of mental hygiene. "<strong>The</strong> gentleman<br />
concluded that it was a fact, that he was in a state of<br />
pregnancy, and would soon go to shut-eye town. But it<br />
happened that t<strong>his</strong> gentleman, for a particular purpose,<br />
stepped out and placed himself against an old stump, and<br />
just at the critical moment, out jumped a rabbit from the<br />
stump, which he owned for <strong>his</strong> child, but it being rather<br />
fleet for the old man, it escaped, and he returned to the<br />
house with great joy, &c."<br />
A complete cure of the hysterics, or hypo. Dr. Carter<br />
thought, was very seldom obtained, particularly after it<br />
became deeply rooted in the system. Blood-letting was in
70<br />
certain cases recommended, also foot-baths, injections, and<br />
dosages of calomel and alloes. Some radical cases called for<br />
stomach blisters, "frictions nearly all over the skin; give a<br />
strong camomile tea to drink, wine, bark and steel; riding<br />
on horse back; cheerful company and interesting engagements."<br />
P<strong>ills</strong> made of asafoetida, "rusian caster," and<br />
opium were likewise helpful. Sometimes instant relief was<br />
obtained by "the vitriolic ether given from thirty to fifty<br />
drops in a cup of some kind of drink." "Gold filings given<br />
in doses (night and morning in honey) about as much as<br />
would lay on the point of a penknife" had been known "to<br />
cure a person who had been too weak to work for three<br />
years. Or take bear's gall and put in rum and drink as a<br />
bitter, is excellent for t<strong>his</strong> disorder; and when the choaking<br />
is bad, a tea spoonful of wheat flour mixed in water and<br />
or chew orange peels and swallow your<br />
drank, will stop it;<br />
spittle &c."<br />
(It would be interesting to know what books the elder<br />
Carter had in <strong>his</strong> library; whether, for instance, there<br />
might have been a copy of E. Jorden, A Brief Discourse of<br />
a Disease Called the Stiffocafion of the Mother, London,<br />
1603. If so, <strong>his</strong> son would have learned "that diuers strange<br />
actions and passions of the body of man, which in the<br />
common opinion, are imputed to the Diuell, haue their true<br />
naturall causes, and do accompanie t<strong>his</strong> disease"; that is,<br />
were due to "fits of the mother," or in modern language,<br />
hysteria.)<br />
Not quite so serious as hypo but still worth attention<br />
were the diseases of scolding and drinking. Carter's calendar<br />
of health warned against "letting of blood or taking of<br />
physick" in February; March was the month for that. "In<br />
the month of May, labourers of all kinds, almost, should<br />
begin to think about work . . . rising early in the morning,<br />
let every garden, field and hedge, produce food and<br />
medicine. Sage tea, and butter, makes a very good breakfast,<br />
clarified whey, with sage and scurvy grass therein, is<br />
also very fine, as well as wormwood beer." Herbs were to<br />
be gathered and dried in the full of the moon in June and
71<br />
July. July also was the time to strew rue, wormwood and<br />
gall upon floors to keep away fleas. In October "it would<br />
be very well to counsel your Doctor ... as well as your<br />
tailor."<br />
Scattered among the "receipts," poems, and testimonials<br />
were scraps of suggestions for a happy married life; even<br />
illustrative love letters were included in <strong>his</strong> volume:<br />
"Through earth, air, fire or water, I would dig, dive, swim,<br />
or fly to possess her"; "I have shewed your letter to my<br />
mother, and I assure you, that such letters as you write, are<br />
generally pleasing to old people, and particularly so to her."<br />
"Would you most beloved of girls, condescend to honor me<br />
with a line, informing me whether your mind has fluctuated<br />
or no and whether my presence would be agreeable<br />
at your fathers." Riddles also were incorporated, as were<br />
observations on life, and essays on God, Man, and the Devil.<br />
<strong>The</strong> woman whose hysterics were caused by jealousy was<br />
advised to "make as good a trade of a bad bargain as 3^ou<br />
can, and give your husband good words. See how honey<br />
will gather flies and vinegar drive them away." People were<br />
warned that "<strong>The</strong> calls of Nature should never be postponed.<br />
Delicacy is a virtue, but that which induces persons<br />
to risk their health or hazard their lives cannot be deemed<br />
a genuine virtue."<br />
of diseases is<br />
Above all, one should ever keep in mind that "<strong>The</strong> cure<br />
never to be attempted ... by violent methods,<br />
but rather by degrees and gentle means," waiting for a<br />
suitable opportunity. "If any application is likely to do<br />
more hurt than good, it should be abandoned." Perhaps,<br />
if abandoned soon enough. Dr. Carter's system would truly<br />
conform to <strong>his</strong> own previously quoted description of it:<br />
"M;y medicine J<br />
though made of herbs, doth wond'rous<br />
<strong>cures</strong> perform,<br />
And yet each one may practice it without producing<br />
harm."<br />
Something of an anticlimax after Carter's book was that
71<br />
of <strong>his</strong> son-in-law, Dr. S. H. Selman, which was published<br />
at Columbus, Indiana, in 1836. In 1825 Carter had mentioned<br />
by name <strong>his</strong><br />
reveal <strong>his</strong> whole secret of practice.<br />
"last student," to whom he meant to<br />
Whether he did so or<br />
not, it is apparent that he later gave young Selman the<br />
revelation. Selman settled in Columbus but toured the state<br />
and advertised widely. His book. <strong>The</strong> Indian Guide to<br />
Health or a Valuable Vegetable Medical Prescription for<br />
the Cure of All Disorders Incident to t<strong>his</strong> Climate, was<br />
designed as a guide to families and young practitioners.<br />
Selman derived many of <strong>his</strong> remedies from Dr. Carter,<br />
to whom he gave full credit, and whom he praised, somewhat<br />
ambiguously, as a man "on whom all powers of ratiocination<br />
in possession of the faculty [the regular <strong>doctors</strong>]<br />
were expended without effect." Like Carter, he ran the<br />
gamut of frontier ailments from ager to snake bite, but was<br />
particularly good on "the Incubus or Night-Mare." T<strong>his</strong><br />
misery (as well as the hypo) could be caused by anxiety,<br />
despondency, or intense thought, possibly also by diet. <strong>The</strong><br />
remedy was blood purification by way of the following<br />
procedure: "Into a copper kettle and five quarts of water<br />
put a handful each of bark of the yellow poplar, dogwood<br />
(from the north side), wild cherry, yellow sarsaparilla root,<br />
and the roots of the running briar. Boil slowly to two<br />
quarts, add a pint of w<strong>his</strong>key, and take a tablespoonful two<br />
or three times a day. Let the diet be confined to chicken,<br />
squirrels, beef, mutton, and broths not too highly seasoned."<br />
T<strong>his</strong> recipe has been characterized by a recent<br />
writer as sounding like "something invented by a bartender<br />
with the female trade in mind."^ His remedy for<br />
the hypo was the same as Carter's, but he added among <strong>his</strong><br />
cases that of a man who thought, because of a "great<br />
vacancy in <strong>his</strong> breast which he had never felt before," that<br />
<strong>his</strong> liver had all been regurgitated.<br />
At Canton, Ohio, in 1838 was published <strong>The</strong> North<br />
American Indian Doctor, or Nature^ Method of Curing<br />
and Preventing Disease According to the Indians. <strong>The</strong><br />
author, Robert L. Foster, also included a "catec<strong>his</strong>m" of
73<br />
anatomy and physiology, a treatise on midwifery with<br />
treatment necessary during pregnancy, and a materia<br />
medica of Indian remedies or vegetable compounds. From<br />
its relative scarcity today, t<strong>his</strong> book is assumed not to have<br />
had a wide circulation.<br />
Although Dr. William Daily, M.D., called <strong>his</strong> book, published<br />
at Louisville in 1848, <strong>The</strong> Indian Doctor's Practice<br />
of Medicine or Daily's Family Physician, it<br />
included elements<br />
of the Thomsonian vegetable-heat treatments. Two<br />
remedies, one for dysentery and a Pain Extractor, he valued<br />
too highly to include with the price of <strong>his</strong> book. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
could be purchased separately for a dollar.<br />
A good sample of the Indian-medicine household handybook<br />
was James Cooper's <strong>The</strong> Indian Doctor's Receipt Book<br />
published at Uniontown, Stark County, Ohio, in 1855.<br />
For a dollar one got not only several dozen assorted <strong>cures</strong><br />
for blind piles, palpitation of the heart— digitalis, by the<br />
way— cholera, and worms, but also the latest and best<br />
information on freckle lotion, how to make the hair curl,<br />
make ink, kill rats, keep potatoes from rotting, make soft<br />
soap and shoe blacking, catch fish by Hindoo art, distill<br />
gin, drive away ants, and make home "pleasing to an<br />
erring husband." In Part Seven was a valuable formula<br />
"to make yourself loving and be loved in return":<br />
"In the first place it will be necessary for you to find an<br />
object upon which to fix your affections, at the same time<br />
being careful to select such an one as you could live with<br />
agreeably. When you have succeeded in t<strong>his</strong>, you must<br />
devote one hour of every day, evening or night, to thinking<br />
of that object, alone. Try, if possible, to so arrange it that<br />
you can retire alone, always at the same hour of each day,<br />
and if you cannot keep your mind fixed, spell the name of<br />
your object, letter by letter until you have succeeded,<br />
which will require but a few sittings; before which time<br />
you should avoid <strong>his</strong> or her company as much as possible,<br />
but afterwards you may go into company as much as you<br />
choose, but by all means, refrain from paying marked<br />
attention to any one, not even excepting the one you wish
74<br />
to please, for hundreds have ruined their chances for mating<br />
themselves by being too precipitate. It will do, however,<br />
for you to feign to be confused when spoken to by<br />
the object of your desires; but never make remarks about<br />
the weather, probability of short crops, low water, market<br />
prices, &c.,— such things should never be subjects for conversation<br />
between males and females who are candidates<br />
for matrimony. Let your conversation be of an interesting<br />
and intellectual character, but do not venture upon a subject<br />
you are not posted up on, or you may make the matter<br />
worse than if you had not spoken at all. Continue in t<strong>his</strong><br />
way for a few weeks, when you may venture, if a male, to<br />
call upon your lady once a week (not oftener) and proceed<br />
as in a common courtship. But do not neglect the private<br />
sittings, much more depends upon them than is commonly<br />
believed; but the day has gone by when "Mental Alchemy,"<br />
"Mesmerism," "Psychology," "Spiritualism," &c., were<br />
hooted at as humbugs, and reasonable and unprejudiced<br />
agree that one mind in the body can establish<br />
persons, all<br />
communication, mutually with almost any other mind,<br />
and at any distance, so that when you retire, as above<br />
directed, to think of a particular person, your image will<br />
rise up before the mind's eye of that person so vividly as<br />
almost to make them believe you stand before them, and<br />
oftentimes your very thoughts will be telegraphed to the<br />
mind of the person you think of."<br />
"Dr. Cooper," who called <strong>his</strong> system "Eclectic," was one<br />
of the few to include the horse in the family; "certain<br />
<strong>cures</strong>" were provided for founder, heaves, farsey, windgall,<br />
bots, and the sweany. One can imagine Dobbin's delight,<br />
especially in summer, after he got <strong>his</strong> treatment for the<br />
bots—"Drench the horse with sweet milk and molasses."<br />
Besides the Indian medicine men, botanists, and whatnot<br />
the <strong>pioneer</strong> doctor had to compete with superstitions<br />
and the arts of the amateur healer.<br />
Said a country physician:<br />
"Among the most disagreeable things attending the
practice of medicine, are the prejudices the physician must<br />
75<br />
constantly meet with, either in the mind of the patient, or<br />
in those of <strong>his</strong> friends. It is easier to cure the bodily complaint<br />
of a hundred persons than to eradicate the prejudices<br />
from the mind of one."" Sickness and death, surrounded<br />
as they were with an air of the supernatural, easily called<br />
forth the folklore of primitive medicine. Powwowing,<br />
charm-<strong>cures</strong>, and magnetic healers all had their devotees.<br />
Those who possessed "the power" guarded it carefully and<br />
passed it along with discretion, always to one of the opposite<br />
sex. A man might tell a woman a charm, or a woman<br />
tell a man, but if man told man or woman told woman,<br />
the charm was lost. Some formulae were community property,<br />
but others were jealously guarded, perhaps recorded<br />
on sheets in the family bible along with births, deaths, and<br />
the proper time to plant beans. A fortunate few— a seven<br />
months' baby or the seventh son of a seventh son— were<br />
born with special curative abilities. Some were gifted with<br />
the knack of "blowing out the fire" and were called upon<br />
to treat burns. Others by magic words and a red thread<br />
could cure erysipelas.<br />
Many persons had implicit faith in charm-<strong>cures</strong>, and failures<br />
were charged to some deficiency or dereliction on the<br />
part of the patient rather than regarded as a fault of the<br />
cure. Besides, there was frequently an "out" in the formula<br />
itself, such as "Corn beef and cabbage is good for a blacksmith<br />
with cramps, but ain't worth a d n for cramps<br />
in a minister." If one remedy failed another was tried. All<br />
honor was granted the cure last used before the body mechanism,<br />
in spite of the remedies, restored its natural condition.<br />
Madstones, loadstones, various woods, and minerals<br />
were widely used, and the astrological signs heeded. July<br />
and August were the "dog days," when Sirius cast a baneful<br />
effect on the blood and air. Wounds would then become<br />
infected, disease was readily caught, and even the old swimming<br />
hole was viewed askance for its<br />
paludal influence."<br />
From prenatal days to the grave and even after, the life<br />
of an individual was hedged around by these practices and
76<br />
beliefs.<br />
Woe betide the <strong>pioneer</strong> baby, who in <strong>his</strong> anxiety to<br />
get into the rapidly developing West, decided to enter<br />
society a month early. Only seven-months' premature<br />
babies were supposed to live. And should the powers that<br />
be defy the laws of nature by deciding that he shouldn't<br />
enter the world at all, 'twas said that drinking of water in<br />
which nine eggs had been boiled would do the trick. Delayed<br />
entry could, of course, be expedited by quilling, but<br />
t<strong>his</strong> was hardly a superstition. <strong>The</strong> rattle of a rattlesnake<br />
sewed in a black silk cloth and put in the hands of the parturient<br />
woman, provided she neither knew what the bundle<br />
contained nor opened it, was said to hasten delivery. Once<br />
the baby's arrival was satisfactorily explained to the other<br />
children— that he had been discovered in the spring, the<br />
creek, the cabbage-patch, or the midwife's apron— he<br />
began to run the gantlet of superstition and home cure.<br />
Any birthmarks could be obliterated by rubbing them<br />
with the hand of a corpse or the head of a live eel for three<br />
successive mornings and then burying the three eel heads,<br />
If Mamma cut <strong>his</strong> hair before he was a year old, she<br />
tied together, beneath a stone under the eaves. If baby's<br />
face was washed in <strong>his</strong> baptismal water, he would be beautiful.<br />
thereby cut short <strong>his</strong> life; if she pared <strong>his</strong> nails before nine<br />
weeks, he was doomed to the life of a thief and would be<br />
forced to scratch for a living. Crawling through an open<br />
window or between the legs of tables or chairs— unless he<br />
crawled back the same way— would immediately stop <strong>his</strong><br />
growth. If a child were "afflicted with short growth," the<br />
string which measured <strong>his</strong> length and showed it less than<br />
seven times <strong>his</strong> foot-length was looped, the child was passed<br />
through the loop three times while words were repeated,<br />
and then the string was twined around the grindstone.<br />
When the string wore out the child would be of proper<br />
length.<br />
Should he look into a mirror before he was nine months<br />
old <strong>his</strong> life would be full of trouble. Were the empty cradle<br />
carelessly rocked, measures had to be taken immediately,<br />
else colic would result. Scrapings from the table cover or a
spoonful of baptismal water would be indicated.<br />
77<br />
If croup<br />
threatened, the right front foot of a mole tied around<br />
baby's neck with a blue thread would prove effective.<br />
Relief could also be afforded by the sufferer's standing on<br />
the warm spleen of a freshly slaughtered beef until the<br />
spleen grew cold. Better still, a hair of the child's head,<br />
taken from the crown, hidden in a hole bored in an ash or<br />
oak tree would prevent the ailment. (T<strong>his</strong> preventive<br />
ceased to operate when the child grew to the height of the<br />
hole.) If convulsions occurred, pouring baptismal water<br />
over the peony bush or covering the infant with <strong>his</strong> father's<br />
wedding coat would effect a cure. Since most of baby's fits<br />
were caused by worms, treatment with either specifics or<br />
charms might be used. For the more violent type (of fits)<br />
a little bag containing the leg of a toad worn around the<br />
neck was known to be good. Almost as effective as t<strong>his</strong> or<br />
"punkin" seed-tea was conjuring in the name of God. Were<br />
bedwetting baby's weakness, fried-mouse pie, burnedhog's-bladder<br />
powder, or spanking with a bake-oven mop<br />
was reputed to help.<br />
Whooping cough could be conquered by a bag of little<br />
live ground-bugs hung around the neck, white ant tea, or<br />
passing the sufferer through a horse collar three times. If<br />
t<strong>his</strong> were not convenient, he could eat the cast-off skin of<br />
a snake or eggs obtained from a person whose name had not<br />
been changed by marriage, drink mare's milk or tea made<br />
of blue clover blossoms, or wear a piece of stolen blue ribbon.<br />
His parents might place him in the hopper of a mill<br />
until the grist was ground; or they might seek to transfer<br />
the affliction to nine worms placed in a bottle and hidden,<br />
or to a live fish, which, after being returned to the water,<br />
gave the ailment to <strong>his</strong> fishy friends, as was evident from<br />
the fact that thereafter they came to the surface of the<br />
water to cough. Kissing a Negro before the age of one year<br />
would prevent whooping cough entirely. <strong>The</strong> ravages of<br />
diphtheria could be warded off by a poultice of cow dung<br />
held in place by means of a stocking turned wrong side out.<br />
Baby should never be left alone with the house cat, for
78<br />
the latter was likely to steal <strong>his</strong> breath. If, however, baby<br />
suffered from marasmus and was puny and short of energy,<br />
he could eat out of the cat's dish; the cat would die, but<br />
baby's vigor would be restored. About the only thing the<br />
child did not have to worry about was snake bite, for that<br />
just naturally could not happen to him until he was seven<br />
years old. <strong>The</strong>n, when bitten, if he did not approve of good<br />
liquor or gunpowder, he could tie on a toad to draw out<br />
the poison. If the toad died, another was tied on. When the<br />
toad lived, all the poison was out. Carrying an onion in the<br />
pocket provided insurance against snake bite, but if one<br />
were bitten, it was necessary for him to eat the heart of<br />
the offending reptile if he would gain further immunity.<br />
Spitting into the mouth of the snake would kill it and prevent<br />
serious harm, or the curse of Adam ("God created<br />
everything and it was good; save thou alone, snake, are<br />
cursed; cursed shalt thou be and thy poison") might be<br />
put upon it, and then it would sneak away and die of shame.<br />
Once the child was past infancy the repertory of possibilities<br />
in both diseases and remedies widened. <strong>The</strong> best<br />
charm for earache was the insertion of the kinkiest hair to<br />
be had from a Negro's head, or oil from the ears of a weasel<br />
of the same sex as the sufferer. If immunity from toothache<br />
had not been acquired by rubbing the child's gums during<br />
the first six months with the brain of a rabbit or the rattle<br />
of a rattlesnake, or if Dr. Smith's recipe had not been followed,<br />
the pain could be eased by picking the offending<br />
tooth with a splinter from a tree struck by lightning, a<br />
coffin nail, the needle used in making a shroud, the nail of<br />
the middle toe of an owl, or a woodcock's tongue. Further<br />
recurrence could be prevented by paring the nails only on<br />
Friday or Sunday and burying the parings on the north side<br />
of the house; or by putting on the left stocking and right<br />
coat sleeve first when dressing. Biting into an apple immediately<br />
after coming home from first communion guaranteed<br />
exemption from toothache pains, too, as did wearing<br />
around the neck a string which had been used to hang three<br />
mice, or one on which was suspended a rabbit's tooth.
<strong>The</strong> activities of childhood exposed the <strong>pioneer</strong> child to<br />
79<br />
a galaxy of cares and <strong>cures</strong>. From contagious diseases there<br />
was little or no escape, though a generous sprinkling of<br />
sliced onions about the sleeping room would go far toward<br />
warding them off. Epidemics of erysipelas struck often and<br />
few preventives were known. Effective treatment could<br />
sometimes be rendered by a woman with twin boys if she<br />
would "strike fire" with flint and steel on the head of the<br />
afflicted one, or by a shovelful of hot coals thrown over the<br />
affected parts. A skein of red woolen yarn first carefully<br />
used to measure the chest, head, and limbs of the sufferer,<br />
then smoked in a barrel, was a good remedy; when the<br />
thread was properly cured, the patient would be, also. A<br />
never-failing remedy was the hanging of nine catkins of a<br />
birch branch, collected on a Friday morning without<br />
speaking to anybody, upon the swollen and inflamed parts.<br />
Mumps could be eradicated by rubbing the swelling against<br />
the pig trough, or even with chips from it. An onion carried<br />
in the pocket would prevent smallpox; scars could be<br />
warded off by an application of three or four small live<br />
toads boiled in olive oil.<br />
Sties and warts were not uncommon in the life of the<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong> child. He soon learned that an efficacious means of<br />
removing a sty was to have it touched by the proper person<br />
with nine gooseberry thorns. A healer might also remove a<br />
ringworm by touching it nine different ways with a thimble.<br />
Cures for warts were about as numerous as the warts<br />
themselves: rubbing with green walnuts, slit beans, corn,<br />
dishcloths— either belonging to the family or stolen —<br />
bacon rinds, chicken feet, silk threads, horsehairs, or raw<br />
potatoes. <strong>The</strong> removing agent was usually buried under the<br />
eaves, though if beef had been used, it was interred in the<br />
garden. Some thought warts could best be removed at<br />
midnight; others held daybreak to be the proper time.<br />
Some warts could be given away to two persons riding on<br />
a grey horse; others had to be sold for a cent, which could<br />
either be thrown away or put in the church collection.<br />
One might also place as many grains of barley as undesir-
80<br />
able warts possessed, in a parcel along the public road.<br />
"Finders keepers"; whoever opened the package got the<br />
warts. A dead apple twig rubbed over the disfigurations,<br />
then thrown into a furrow about to be plowed, or a pebble<br />
cast into an open grave was a certain remover. Shingles<br />
could be taken care of by the application of the blood from<br />
the amputated tail of a black cat.<br />
Boils and carbuncles occurred if the vile humors of the<br />
system had not been removed by spring purging and bitters.<br />
A poultice of bread baked on Good Friday or one<br />
prepared by mashing an onion which had been hollowed<br />
out, filled with soap, and roasted in hot ashes would compensate<br />
for t<strong>his</strong> neglect. Poison ivy would cause no trouble<br />
throughout the entire year if one in early spring would but<br />
eat a small portion of its leaves or roots,^^ and immunity<br />
from ground itch could be obtained by tying around the<br />
ankle a white woolen cord.<br />
Freckles though not a definite ill could be present in such<br />
number as<br />
to constitute an embarrassing nuisance to the<br />
adolescent. Removal could be effected by a generous dousing<br />
with May Day dew collected from stumps. Water<br />
gathered in a graveyard was helpful, too; however, like<br />
Euridice and Lot's wife,<br />
the gatherer was warned not to<br />
look back. To expedite the growth of a mustache the sap of<br />
a grapevine was almost infallible, or the young man might<br />
anoint <strong>his</strong> lip with sweet cream which a black cat should<br />
lick off on a dark night.<br />
Bumblebees and wasps could be charmed away from an<br />
intended victim by <strong>his</strong> repeating a magic rhyme. Mad dogs,<br />
however, usually failed to succumb to such sorcery, though<br />
sane dogs would not linger in the presence of an evil spirit.<br />
Once bitten, a person could eat a bread and butter sandwich<br />
containing a hair of the offending dog, or use a madstone.<br />
One teaspoonful per day of a mixture of one ounce of<br />
burned, pulverized jaw bone of a dog, dried pulverized<br />
false tongue of a newborn colt, and one scruple of "verdigree"<br />
mixed with calomel was also eflFective.<br />
To fend off the inevitable wounds and injuries it be-
81<br />
hooved every person to have the right eye of a wolf fastened<br />
inside <strong>his</strong> right sleeve. If t<strong>his</strong> precaution had not been<br />
taken, there still remained a number of recourses. One was<br />
to have on hand a goodly supply of wound-wood, prepared<br />
from ash severed in three strokes by the woodsman before<br />
sunrise on Good Friday morning and gathered after the sun<br />
had shone upon it. If excessive bleeding were present the<br />
blood flow might be controlled by changing the pocket<br />
knife to another pocket, or by repeating charms, such as<br />
"Christ's wounds were never bound. In the name of the<br />
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." To<br />
mend foot-injury a piece of turf the shape of the foot could<br />
be cut out and replaced upside down. Speeding up slowhealing<br />
sores on hands or feet was brought about by tying<br />
onto the sore member a toad's foot. T<strong>his</strong> was to be secured<br />
by binding a live toad with a double linen thread and, without<br />
handling <strong>his</strong> body, cutting off the corresponding member.<br />
When the foot of the toad dropped off, recovery had<br />
begun. Nosebleed could be stopped by chewing paper,<br />
tying an eelskin around the arm, recalling who sat in the<br />
next pew at the last church service attended, or three times<br />
letting three drops of blood fall on a heated shovel and<br />
then removing them.<br />
Colds and coughs were never entirely absent, though a<br />
wool stocking tied around the neck went far toward warding<br />
off t<strong>his</strong> complaint and, of course, the bag of asafoetida<br />
or camphor was good for whatever ailed one. Once contracted,<br />
a cold could be treated by crawling through a<br />
double-rooted briar toward the east. Comfort from t<strong>his</strong><br />
affliction could also be found in eating from a blue dish,<br />
wearing a blue ribbon, drinking tonic from a blue bottle,<br />
drinking stolen milk, thrusting a live fish into the throat<br />
then returning it to the water, or sewing up in a thimble,<br />
nut, or bag a spider or woodlouse and wearing it around the<br />
neck until the insect died.<br />
<strong>The</strong> coughs and colds of childhood gave way to more<br />
serious respiratory complaints of the adult — asthma, bronchitis,<br />
tuberculosis, pleurisy, quinsy. Walking around the
"<br />
82<br />
house at midnight alone at the full of the moon would take<br />
care of asthma, but bronchitis could be cured by the more<br />
passive means of a stocking turned wrong side out and<br />
worn around the neck over night.<br />
For pleurisy, or "liver<br />
growth," the treatment was somewhat more complicated;<br />
the sufferer should creep around a table leg three times,<br />
stopping exactly at the place of beginning. Some insisted<br />
that one must crawl backwards. A child might obtain the<br />
same result by crawling through a warm horse collar or a<br />
double-rooted blackberry briar. Consumption could be<br />
prevented by eating the fried heart of a rattlesnake which<br />
had not bitten itself. A yellow toad secured from an obliging<br />
neighbor's cellar would, when bound to the throat,<br />
absorb the poisons of quinsy.<br />
Disappointment in love affairs often led to epilepsy.<br />
Restoration to normal faculties might be accomplished by<br />
swallowing the heart of a rattlesnake, sleeping over the cow<br />
stable, or being passed three times through the crotch of a<br />
forked hickory tree which had been wedged open. If the<br />
tree healed and grew the patient would recover. <strong>The</strong><br />
afflicted one might prefer to remove <strong>his</strong> shirt wrong side<br />
out, then place it in a coffin under the head of a corpse, or<br />
to hang onto <strong>his</strong> right arm and left foot one slice of peony<br />
root for each year of <strong>his</strong> age; recovery would begin when<br />
the pieces dropped off. As a last resort, he might dig the<br />
roots of the white peony at the rising of the sun when the<br />
sign was in Leo and the moon new on Sunday, taking care<br />
not to handle the root with the bare hands. <strong>The</strong> root was<br />
then to be dried, enclosed with gold, and worn at the neck.<br />
<strong>The</strong> hypo was, of course, another serious mental condition.<br />
In addition to the various specifics and herb <strong>cures</strong>, a<br />
powwow charm was often used: "Put that joint of the<br />
thumb which sits in the palm of the hand on the bare skin<br />
covering the small bone which stands out above the pit of<br />
the heart, and say: 'Matrix, patrix, lay thyself right and<br />
safe. Or thou and I shall on the third day fill the grave.*<br />
So many different brands of fever and ague prevailed<br />
that a general remedy was unknown. Some of the <strong>pioneer</strong>s
83<br />
believed that three hard-boiled eggs eaten on Good Friday,<br />
or the first three hail-stones of the year, or rye heads consumed<br />
in the name of the Trinity would make a person<br />
immune. Once a fever was contracted, a polite and holy<br />
exhortation might cause it to leave: "Good morning, dear<br />
Thursday! Take away from [name] the 77-fold fevers.<br />
Oh! Thou dear Lord Jesus Christ, take them away from<br />
him!" A black cat might eat some of the soup fed to the<br />
patient, or a black dog could feast on a pound of beef boiled<br />
in the sufferer's urine. A small grasshopper, placed in a rag<br />
and provided with a lunch of a crumb of rye bread and a<br />
little salt, could be hung on the patient's skin without <strong>his</strong><br />
knowledge of the contents of the sack. On the ninth day<br />
the charm was to be removed and cast upon the waters;<br />
relief would return after not too many days. Wine to<br />
which had been added a living crawfish, after letting stand<br />
all night, was efficacious when taken early in the morning<br />
on an empty stomach. Or one might set on a piece of paper:<br />
ABRACADABRA<br />
ABRACADAB<br />
A B R A C A D<br />
A B R A C<br />
A B R<br />
T<strong>his</strong> paper, wrapped in common plantain leaves, was to be<br />
laid on the stomach of the patient when attacks of fever<br />
occurred. If they came with unusual severity, additional<br />
papers could be placed behind the ears and in the crotch.<br />
After six hours the fever would be so thoroughly bewitched<br />
that it would not return.<br />
For the debilitating afflictions of adulthood and old age<br />
a multitude of <strong>cures</strong> were known. If the <strong>pioneer</strong> wished<br />
to be freed for thirty years from rheumatism and joint<br />
stiffness, he had but to drink, beginning on a Friday morning<br />
in spring and continuing on Saturday and Sunday, a<br />
hot tonic of three sprays of elderberry blossoms boiled in a
84<br />
quart of sweet milk In a new earthen pot.<br />
Other preventives<br />
included carrying in the pocket a coffin nail,<br />
potato,<br />
horse-chestnut, or the triangular bone of a ham. A rattlesnake<br />
rattle might be worn on a string around the neck, or<br />
glass knobs could be placed under the bed posts. Water<br />
used for washing the feet could be kept overnight. If,<br />
in spite of these precautions, he still suffered, a salted mackerel<br />
tied onto the feet or the application of the blood of a<br />
perfectly black hen would furnish relief.<br />
Dropsy yielded to a treatment of sliced horseradish tied<br />
to the feet or an internal and external dosing with a powder<br />
made of toads. Some believed t<strong>his</strong> latter remedy was good<br />
for smallpox also. Tuberculosis of the bone could be treated<br />
by dog bones or an old hat burned to a powder. An uneven<br />
number of pieces of wild marjoram roots made into a necklace<br />
which was to be buried under the eaves after it had<br />
been worn for nine days took care of scrofula. Ulcers could<br />
be cured by the fresh blood of a black chicken, and heartburn<br />
would not recur if one swallowed a fishworm aUve.<br />
Constipation could be effectively treated by eating soup<br />
made of chicken— feathers and all.<br />
To rub a corn with a small piece of cotton cloth and then<br />
unobservedly hide the cloth in a coffin with a body about<br />
to be buried would cause the disappearance of the growth.<br />
Goiter succumbed to the healing touch of the hand of a<br />
corpse. A wen would dry up if a snake's head and tail were<br />
nine times drawn across it, accompanied each time by an<br />
"Amen." Other <strong>cures</strong> for wens suggested "washing twice<br />
daily in the patient's own urine and anointing once daily<br />
with grease broiled out of a wooden potlid, or the marrow<br />
of an old bakened hog's jaw, or a hubbed toad may be just<br />
knocked in the head and laid upon it." Saying three times<br />
in church while the benediction was being pronounced:<br />
"What I look at is sin. What I stroke may it vanish," would<br />
rid one of a tumor. Probably the best of the myriad cancer<br />
<strong>cures</strong> was the application of the slime prepared by dissolving<br />
common snails in salt, placing them in a pewter<br />
plate, and setting it over coals. Bedsores would vanish by
85<br />
placing under the bed a hitherto unused crock, an axe, or<br />
sod turned upside down.<br />
One might prevent backache by turning a sommersault<br />
at the call of the first whippoorwill of spring. Sprains could<br />
be treated by wrapping an eelskin around the arm. Walking<br />
in the rain during dogdays caused headaches and baldness,<br />
though chronic headaches also caused baldness and<br />
gray hair. <strong>The</strong>se headaches might be bound up with a<br />
halter with which someone had been hanged; the rope used<br />
in a suicide had special merits.<br />
A good eyewash could be made of March snow; cataracts<br />
charmed away by wearing around the neck a bag of<br />
unwashed cloth containing bread, salt, and wheat; and<br />
inflammation of the eyes relieved by a few drops of the<br />
juice of a rotten apple. Congenitally weak eyes would be<br />
benefitted by frequent applications of pure water.<br />
Forgetfulness might be caused by old age, by drying up<br />
of the brain, or by combing the hair with a fine-toothed<br />
comb after dark; regardless of its cause, it could be overcome<br />
by carrying cinquefoil on the fingers. <strong>The</strong> memory<br />
of a barn swallow could be acquired by boiling the heart<br />
of one in milk and wearing it around the neck. When<br />
finally, all remedies and <strong>cures</strong> have failed, and mortification<br />
of the brain set in, there was one last resort: sulphur, alum,<br />
gunpowder, and vinegar.<br />
From folk <strong>cures</strong> to mechanical magic was just a step.<br />
<strong>The</strong> "wonderful century," a century of invention, was ushered<br />
in by one of the most famous medical hoaxes of all<br />
times. Dr. Elisha Perkins (1741-99) of Connecticut had<br />
observed that during operations, when metallic instruments<br />
were brought in contact with muscles, the latter<br />
contracted; also he witnessed the cessation of pain when<br />
such instruments were used to separate teeth from the gum<br />
prior to extraction. Mulling over these facts, he conceived<br />
<strong>his</strong> gift to sufferers. T<strong>his</strong> contraption consisted of two<br />
rods, each about three inches long— supposedly of a mixture<br />
of copper, zinc, a little gold, silver, and platinum but<br />
probably of brass and iron— rounded at one end, pointed
S6<br />
on the other, half round on one side and flat on the other.<br />
On the flat side was printed "Perkins Patent Tractors,"<br />
commonly called Perkinese Tractors. <strong>The</strong> tractors, manufactured<br />
in a small furnace which was concealed in the<br />
wall of Perkins's house, sold at a handsome price (five<br />
guineas in England, for instance).<br />
With these implements the disease was to be extracted<br />
from the body according to directions v/hich varied with<br />
the malady. Sometimes the instruments were to be drawn<br />
from the pained part to the extremities; at other times<br />
friction was to be applied to the aJSfected part until there<br />
was redness from the inflammation. One principle applied<br />
generally: the drawing was always to be downward, for to<br />
draw upward might intensify the disease. Even Perkins did<br />
not guarantee the infallibility of <strong>his</strong> life-saver— "<strong>The</strong><br />
headache that arises from drinking to excess, it does not<br />
always cure." Its use was heartily recommended for "Rheumatism,<br />
Pleurisy, Some Gouty Affections, etc." One clergyman<br />
found it "also useful in picking walnuts." An<br />
Indiana user cured a lame crow.<br />
Belief in the tractors was not confined entirely to the<br />
simple folk. Congress was in session at the time of patenting,<br />
and the new invention aroused considerable interest.^^<br />
According to report a Virginia gentleman sold <strong>his</strong> plantation<br />
and took the price in tractors. George Washington<br />
was said to have bought a set and Chief Justice Ellsworth,<br />
"though not altogether convinced," gave Perkins a letter<br />
of introduction to incoming Justice Marshall. Professors<br />
of three American universities said they believed in tractoration.<br />
Benjamin Douglas Perkins, son of the discoverer, carried<br />
the light abroad with an almost fabulous success which<br />
made possible <strong>his</strong> leaving England some $10,000 richer. In<br />
1804 the Perkinean Institution, which treated five thousand<br />
cases during its existence, was founded in London.<br />
In France the workmen could not make the implements<br />
fast enough; as omnipresent as the modern lipstick, tractors<br />
accompanied the females, "who delighted in their use."
In Denmark notable effects resulted from their more prosaic<br />
use on horses. So implicit was the belief in their curative<br />
properties that many people were immediately cured<br />
of whatever ailed them, even when unknowingly they used<br />
tractors of wood, lead, nails, piece of bone, slate-pencils,<br />
and tobacco pipes which a couple of regular <strong>doctors</strong> had<br />
made in imitation of the authentic tractors in order to<br />
prove that Perkins was a charlatan of the first rank.<br />
Fellow physicians did not entirely approve the new cureall<br />
and Elisha was expelled from the Connecticut Medical<br />
Society. He finally succumbed to yellow fever after having<br />
tried to cure himself with a vinegar and salt rem.edy of <strong>his</strong><br />
87<br />
own concoction; we do not know whether he availed himself<br />
of <strong>his</strong> tractor or not. Benjamin Perkins died in New<br />
York in 1810. By 1811 people were speaking of "tractoration"<br />
as one of the follies of the past, although tractors or<br />
gadgets based on the same principle were peddled and used<br />
in the West for years.<br />
Another device employed by early quacks was the "Tetotum<br />
Eclecticum." T<strong>his</strong> instrument had pasted on its sides<br />
the initials of various remedies, leaving out calomel, opium,<br />
and the lancet. <strong>The</strong> patient was permitted to elect the particular<br />
system by which he wished to be treated; the practitioner<br />
twirled the tetotum on the table at the bedside and<br />
when it came to a state of rest, the letters which came out<br />
on top indicated the medicine to be given.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>pioneer</strong> might also avail himself of:<br />
"Dr. Christie's Galvanic belt, bracelets, necklace and<br />
magnetic fluid for removal and permanent cure of all<br />
nervous Diseases and of those complaints which are caused<br />
by an impaired, weakened or unhealthy condition of the<br />
nervous system. General debility, strengthening the weakened<br />
body, giving tone to the various organs, and invigorating<br />
the system. Also in fits, cramps, paralysis and palsy,<br />
dyspepsia or indigestion, rheumatism, acute and chronic,<br />
gout, epilepsy, lumbago, deafness, nervous tremors, palpitation<br />
of the heart, apoplexy, neuralgia, pains in the side<br />
and chest, liver complaint, spinal complaint and curvature
88<br />
of the spine, hip complaint, diseases of the kidneys, deficiency<br />
of nervous and physical energy and all nervous diseases.<br />
60,000 persons in the last three years have been<br />
entirely and permanently cured. "^'*<br />
In Cincinnati in 1829 Dr. L. M. Johnson advertised "A<br />
powerful Electro-Galvanic Resuscitating Battery which<br />
will be free for the Humane Society and the faculty for<br />
restoring suspended animation." Dr. T. J. Gazley of<br />
Lebanon, Illinois, invented an "Electerizing Machine,"<br />
purchasable for $7, which was supposed to be of use<br />
in reviving persons apparently dead from drowning. Galvanic<br />
belts and such appliances did not, of course, go out<br />
with the <strong>pioneer</strong> period, nor was their use confined to the<br />
West, as a perusal of the pages of some of the slick-paper<br />
periodicals of the early 1900's would confirm.<br />
A Dr. Williams of Cincinnati had a rather unfortunate<br />
experience. His specialty was the treatment of the eyes.<br />
He kept one bottle of "eye-water" with which he created<br />
new eyes for man, and another for a similar purpose for<br />
horses. Accidentally he got the bottles changed. "He found<br />
it prudent to quit forthwith."^* A Negro practitioner of<br />
the Queen City catered to some of the wealthiest people.<br />
He diagnosed diseases by analyzing a tumbler of water into<br />
which the patient had dipped one finger. A young lady<br />
was told that a male had also dipped <strong>his</strong> finger in the water.<br />
When she denied t<strong>his</strong> the quack told her she was pregnant<br />
with male child. She confessed to being pregnant and later<br />
had a male baby. A man was told that a dead person's finger<br />
had been placed in the water; on <strong>his</strong> way to consult <strong>his</strong><br />
regular doctor he died. Perhaps the regular <strong>doctors</strong> knew<br />
more than they cared to tell concerning the considerable<br />
haste with which t<strong>his</strong> quack left the city.^^<br />
Cancer <strong>doctors</strong> enjoyed a thriving business. Nor were<br />
they the least bit modest in their claims: "Dr. Floyd<br />
vouches to remove and extirpate the most obstinate and<br />
difficult case of cancer in the short space of from three to<br />
forty-eight hours." Dr. Balthasar Beckar guaranteed "Cancers<br />
cured by inspection. "^^
89<br />
And then there was the great King, who advertised:<br />
"Humble ones, my mission calls me among you. <strong>The</strong><br />
Great Book, on being opened, announces my coming. Your<br />
pains, sufferings, and sorrows shall cease. . . . Wherever he<br />
has been, the blind have been restored to sight, the lame<br />
walked, the heart-broken made happy. More than a million<br />
of people afflicted with every ill that flesh is heir to,<br />
have applied to him for relief during the past ten years,<br />
and in every instance has a permanent cure been effected.<br />
Come, behold, see for yourselves, and" watch the hand of<br />
Fate, as it points you out the course to follow. Dr. King can<br />
not attend to any calls after sundown, as he is then engaged<br />
until morning dawn in consulting the stars and the planets<br />
as to the proper treatment of <strong>his</strong> patients on the following<br />
day."^^<br />
One Indiana claimant to healing powers based <strong>his</strong> practice<br />
on certain apothegmis: "Every joint produces a different<br />
fever. <strong>The</strong>re are different colors to the different fevers<br />
from the different joints. Every man has a hundred and ten<br />
joints, and every woman has a hundred and ninety-nine<br />
joints. <strong>The</strong> fever will go out of the joints into the stomach<br />
by taking cold. <strong>The</strong>n separate the fevers, destroying whatever<br />
is to be destroyed. For headache give w<strong>his</strong>ky and<br />
vinegar. For pain all over, wash all over with w<strong>his</strong>ky and<br />
vinegar, then grease with castor oil.<br />
If much pain, take a<br />
tablespoonful of saltpeter and four ounces of castor oil."^^<br />
Another Indiana quack and <strong>his</strong> wife advertised to cure all<br />
incurable diseases by their combined manipulations and<br />
charms. Attendance of the patient in person was not necessary;<br />
whoever could not go to them could be cured by<br />
sending a lock of hair."*^<br />
In quite a different category from the Indian-medicine<br />
and the powwow books were the household-remedy or<br />
domestic-medicine books. It is often difficult to distinguish<br />
them from the num.erous offerings of the Botanies or Eclectics;<br />
about the only criterion is their use of calomel and
90<br />
lancet. One of the early works of t<strong>his</strong> type was that of Dr.<br />
William Buchan, Domestic Medicine; or the Family Physician:<br />
Being an Attempt to Render the Medical Art More<br />
Generally Useful with Respect to the Prevention and Cure<br />
of Diseases, first published at Edinburgh in 1769. It went<br />
through many editions both in the British Isles and in the<br />
United States;'^ it has been said that the influence of t<strong>his</strong><br />
book was "greater than any other similar work ever published."^^<br />
Dr. Buchan did not intend it "to supercede the<br />
use of a Physician, but to supply <strong>his</strong> place, in situations<br />
where medical assistance could not easily be obtained." T<strong>his</strong><br />
use "would not only tend to improve the art and to banish<br />
quackery, but likewise to render Medicine more universally<br />
useful by extending its benefits to society." His suggested<br />
<strong>cures</strong>, such as the one for inflamed eyes— the application<br />
of leeches to the temples or under the eyes, or a seton placed<br />
in the neck or between the shoulders ("I have known<br />
patients, who had been blind for a considerable time, recover<br />
sight by means of a seton") — did not differ greatly from<br />
those recommended by any of the other <strong>doctors</strong>. His information<br />
on preventive medicine, however, is extraordinarily<br />
modern.<br />
Dr. Anthony A. Benezet, a graduate of the <strong>University</strong> of<br />
Pennsylvania and an honorary member of the Medical<br />
Society of Philadelphia, attempted to improve upon<br />
Buchan's book and adapt it to the western country, but he<br />
added little. <strong>The</strong> Family Physician; Comprising Rules for<br />
the Prevention and Cure of Diseases; Calculated Particularly<br />
for the Inhabitants of the Western Country, and for<br />
Those Who Navigate Its Waters, was published at Cincinnati<br />
in 1826. After a chapter on the western climate, its<br />
influence on health, and advice to emigrants, Benezet took<br />
up the human body, the passions, the preservation of<br />
health, and nursing. <strong>The</strong> usual diseases and casualties were<br />
described and treatments set forth. A "Dispensatory" and<br />
additional remarks on consumption concluded the work.<br />
As in other books of t<strong>his</strong> sort, both the <strong>cures</strong> of the regulars<br />
— calomel, castor oil, Peruvian bark, epsom salts, opium.
91<br />
bleeding— and those of the vegetable kind were listed and<br />
recommended. Benezet's book may have had other editions,<br />
for it was well known in the West in its day.<br />
<strong>The</strong> number of domestic-medicine books of t<strong>his</strong> type<br />
published in the West is not definitely known. Many were<br />
of limited circulation, confined largely to the localities in<br />
which they were published. <strong>The</strong>y varied in size from the<br />
six-page Physician at Hand or a Collection of Receipts and<br />
Cures to Heal Diseases and Wounds of Various Kinds, by<br />
Dr. W. Smith (Wooster, Ohio, 1829), with its even dozen<br />
recipes— including treatment of mortification and the<br />
leprosy— to the thousand-page Gunn.<br />
Often these books were so similar that it is apparent that<br />
they were copied from their predecessors. Occasionally one<br />
would have distinguishing merits. For instance, A. Weyer<br />
published at St. Clairsville, Ohio, in 1831, <strong>The</strong> Family<br />
Physician or Poor Man's Friend, and Married Lady's Companion:<br />
Containing a great variety of Valuable Medical<br />
Recipes, designed to assist heads of Families, Travellers,<br />
and Sea-faring People in ctiring Disease. T<strong>his</strong> work was<br />
largely botanic — though it also recommended opium, calomel,<br />
and bleeding— but certainly was not intended for use<br />
in the prohibition era. For the dyspepsia: "Take one quart<br />
of good w<strong>his</strong>key to which add ...."; to purify the blood:<br />
"Take three pints of good rye w<strong>his</strong>key ...."; to make a<br />
balsam: "Take a quart of rye w<strong>his</strong>key ."<br />
. . . <strong>The</strong> printer<br />
and pubhsher, Horton J. Howard, was stimulated by the<br />
Botanic Samuel Thomson's visit to Ohio in 1829, but<br />
apparently did not give Thomson monopoly rights to <strong>his</strong><br />
press. As a result he and Thomson became bitter enemies<br />
and proceeded to air their differences in print.<br />
A Travellers Pocket Medical Guide was published anonymously<br />
at Louisville in 1833. <strong>The</strong> printer, "Wilcox, made it<br />
of convenient pocket size by confining its one hundred<br />
fifty-two pages to a size of two by three inches.<br />
At Connersville, Indiana, in 1834 Dr. Buell Eastman<br />
published a Practical Treatise on Diseases Peculiar to Women<br />
and Girls, to which was added an "eclectic system of
92<br />
midwifery" and a section on diseases of children. Eastman's<br />
announced purpose was to "guide the people in a plain and<br />
prompt manner in the discharge of their duty, to instruct<br />
the untaught, learn the ignorant, direct the enquiring, and<br />
guide the inexperienced in the practical path of safety . . .<br />
to collect from all other systems that which Y>all be useful<br />
in a practical point of view— to place in your hands, a<br />
rule, a guide, and a touch-stone, that you may know where<br />
there is danger— be wise where there is ignorance—kind<br />
where there is suffering— that you may relieve where there<br />
is distress— that you may help where there is need—and<br />
be useful where there is opportunity."<br />
An interesting little book is the pocket-size one hundredpage<br />
Symptoms and Treatment of All Diseases, "written"<br />
and printed by H. D. Mason at Cedarville, Ohio, in 1843.<br />
Mason drew largely upon Dr. Mackintosh. He was strictly<br />
up to date on fevers, listing as causes marshmiasma, contagion,<br />
epidemic influence, cold, fear, despondence, and<br />
fatigue. His treatment for remittent fever included bleeding,<br />
"10 and 10" of jalap and calomel, "Dovers poweders,"<br />
pearlash and vinegar, and blisters. Brandy, bitters and quinine<br />
were to be given during recovery. For asthma he<br />
prescribed coffee, lobelia, skunk's cabbage, licorice squ<strong>ills</strong>,<br />
poultice of hops and flaxseed, and galvanism. For Asiatic<br />
cholera, shave the head and apply cold water; for delirium<br />
tremens use emetics, opium, cupping, and a strong tea of<br />
wormv/ood. Mason mixed <strong>his</strong> mercurials and botanic remedies<br />
freely.<br />
Like Dr. Buchan, another doctor whose ideas on preventive<br />
medicine were somewhat in advance of <strong>his</strong> time was<br />
Dr. William Matthews of Putnam County, Indiana, whose<br />
A Treatise on Domestic Medicine and Kindred Subjects<br />
Embracing Anatomical and Physiological Sketches of th^<br />
Human Body was published at Indianapolis in 1848. Dr.<br />
Matthews held in rather general contempt the medicine of<br />
the period as practiced alike by the regulars, irregulars, and<br />
quacks. <strong>The</strong>re were fourflushers within the "Regular Faculty,"<br />
dangerous men to be pitied, but to be eliminated.
nevertheless. <strong>The</strong> other quacks "are either inexcusably<br />
93<br />
ignorant, or they are designing villains"— frequently both.<br />
Aside from some of <strong>his</strong> ideas on diet—more caution should<br />
be exercised in the use of carrots and the like than in the<br />
eating of sweet potatoes, beans, and peas, and meat should<br />
be preferred over vegetables — there is little to suggest the<br />
period in which Matthews wrote.<br />
One of the most popular of the many domestic-medicine<br />
books was that of Dr. John C. Gunn, Dovtesfic Medicine<br />
or Poor Man's Friend, in the House of Affliction, Pain and<br />
Sickness. T<strong>his</strong> work, originally published at Knoxville,<br />
Tennessee, in 1830, went through so many "editions" that<br />
it is impossible to enumerate them. Besides various Tennessee<br />
printings, editions appeared at Springfield and Xenia,<br />
Ohio. By the ninth edition, 1839, the book claimed sales of<br />
over one hundred thousand copies. It was topping the field<br />
in sales in the 1850's and after the Civil War; with active<br />
agents all over the West it reached its two hundred thirteenth<br />
"edition" in 1885. <strong>The</strong>re were also various German<br />
printings.<br />
As Dr. Gunn said on <strong>his</strong> title-page, "T<strong>his</strong> Book Points<br />
Out, in Plain Language, Free from Doctor's Terms, <strong>The</strong><br />
Diseases of Men, Women and Children, and the Latest and<br />
Most Approved Means Used in <strong>The</strong>ir Cure, and is Expressly<br />
Written For <strong>The</strong> Benefit of Families In <strong>The</strong> Western and<br />
Southern States. It also contains descriptions of the medicinal<br />
roots and herbs of the southern and western country,<br />
and how they are to be used in the cure of diseases.<br />
Arranged on a new and simple plan, by which the practice<br />
of medicine is reduced to principles of common sense." <strong>The</strong><br />
truth of the last sentence mJght be doubted som.ewhat by<br />
the reader but the importance of the work can not be<br />
questioned.<br />
In the introduction of the 1835 edition the author<br />
described the fine state of health, both mental and physical,<br />
in which man lived in the "early days of nature." After <strong>his</strong><br />
sinning "<strong>his</strong> days are shortened and encumbered with disease<br />
. . . the earth brings forth thorns and briars." Civili-
94<br />
zation was the prime mortal cause of these <strong>ills</strong>.<br />
"Professional<br />
pride and native cupidity, contrary to the true spirit<br />
of justice and Christianity, have, in all ages and countries,<br />
from sentiments of self-interest and want of liberality,<br />
delighted in concealing the divine art of healing diseases,<br />
under complicated names, and difficult or unmeaning technical<br />
phrases. Why make a mystery of things which relieve<br />
the distresses and sufferings of our fellow-beings"<br />
He treated the usual medical topics: ague and fever,<br />
rheumatism, consumption, dysentery or flux, laxness or<br />
constant looseness of the bowels, catarrh or cold, pleurisy,<br />
gravel and stone, St. Anthony's fire (erysipelas), toothache,<br />
epileptic fits, palsy, piles, cowpox or vaccination, smallpox,<br />
poisons, scalds and burns, pregnancy, and so on. A section<br />
on diseases of children covered measles, the snuffles, fits, and<br />
the like, while another described herbs and roots and their<br />
use. Fractures, epidemic cholera, and accidents were also<br />
discussed. A dosage table was attached. Sometimes one feels<br />
that Gunn expected quite a lot from the home doctor. For<br />
instance, in "wounds of the belly . . . should any part of<br />
the bowels come out at the wound, if clean and uninjured,<br />
return it as quickly as possible; if covered with dirt, clots<br />
of blood, etc. wash it carefully in warm water before<br />
returning it."<br />
About one-eighth of the work treated "Of the Passions'*<br />
—fear, anger, hope, joy, jealousy, grief, religion, intemperance,<br />
and love—a combination of mental hygiene,<br />
morality lessons, and advice to the lovelorn. "When the<br />
passions run counter to reason and religion, nationally and<br />
iudh'hhially, they produce the most frightful catastrophes."<br />
Joy and hope were beneficent passions, though the<br />
latter might have dangerous consequences. Fear was a base<br />
passion, and aggravated disease, while cowardice "disorders<br />
and impedes the circulation of the blood; hinders breathing<br />
with freedom; puts the stomach out of order, as well as the<br />
bowels; affects the kidneys and skin, and produces bad<br />
effects on the whole body. ..." Jealousy usually had to<br />
do with love but might be merely a "disease of talking."
Love was one of the master passions and embraced all<br />
95<br />
complicated and powerful faculties of man. Its effects were<br />
determined largely by training and education. "No woman<br />
possessed of a judicious education . . . ever became the<br />
victim of a broken heart." Religion concerned not only<br />
the moral condition of mankind, but health and diseases of<br />
the physical system. Medical drugs were inadequate to<br />
restrain those joys or remove those sorrows which spring<br />
from the mind itself. Resort must be had to the restraining<br />
powers and the consolations of religion and morality, for<br />
the pleasures and pains of the imagination commence where<br />
those of the memory and the understanding terminate. By<br />
the 1850's advances in the publishing arts made possible in<br />
the editions of t<strong>his</strong> book beautiful colored plates illustrating<br />
Love, Jealousy, Intemperance, Infidelity, and the<br />
like, which ranged from the beatific to the ridiculous.<br />
People of means and education, particularly in or near<br />
the young cities of the West, were dependent neither upon<br />
charm-<strong>cures</strong> nor upon home remedies. But they were, likely<br />
as not, confronted with hazards which did not bother the<br />
folk who were closer to the field and forest. <strong>The</strong>n as<br />
the<br />
now<br />
fads swept the country:<br />
"Again, young ladies at school, and sometimes with their<br />
parents, will resolve to become extremely pale, from a<br />
notion that it looks interesting. For t<strong>his</strong> purpose, they will<br />
substitute for their natural food, pickles of all kinds,<br />
powdered chalk, vinegar, burnt coffee, pepper and other<br />
spices, especially cinamon and cloves; others will add to<br />
these paper, of which many sheets are sometimes eaten in<br />
a day; and t<strong>his</strong> is persisted in till the natural appetite for<br />
wholesome food is superceded by a depraved and morbid<br />
desire for everything but that which is nutritious; cordials<br />
and bitters are then sometimes resorted to, in a vain<br />
attempt to restore the healthy tone of the stomach, till<br />
at last the cheek, originally pale—for fresh and blooming<br />
color is very rare in the complexions even of the healthiest<br />
and youngest in America—become deathlike in their hue,<br />
the whole frame withers, and a premature grave receives
96<br />
the unhappy victim. So indifferent, however, are parents<br />
to the welfare of their children, or so unable or unwilling<br />
are they to exercise parental authority to check t<strong>his</strong> evil in<br />
the bud, that they look on, if not without disapprobation,<br />
at least without any vigorous effort to avert the evil. . . .<br />
Such practices as these, added to the other causes, . . .<br />
sufficiently account for the decayed and decaying state of<br />
health among the female population of the United States."<br />
Were such conditions to continue another fifty years, the<br />
writer of t<strong>his</strong> observation in 1840 predicted it would<br />
require a new race of settlers in the West to supply the<br />
worn-out constitutions of the old ones, just as new lands<br />
were required to replace the worn-out fields of the seaboard<br />
states.<br />
Yet indifference and ignorance were slowly giving way<br />
before more enlightened views. <strong>The</strong> Journal of Health,<br />
begun at Philadelphia in 1830, gave practically its entire<br />
attention to temperance in the use of liquor and tobacco, to<br />
fresh air, exercise and cleanliness. It attacked feather beds<br />
(except for the aged), corsets, and quackery. It advocated<br />
the same bodily exercises for boys and girls and recommended<br />
v/alking, gardening, tennis, and open-air games<br />
to all. Dancing under proper limitation was a "highly<br />
salutary species of exercise," and pursuit of a game called<br />
golf, formerly played in Scotland, was said by some to<br />
prolong life ten years. <strong>The</strong> following editorial on health,<br />
copied in the Madison (Indiana) Republican and Banner<br />
from Sears's Nejv Family Recipe Book, may have expressed<br />
ideas far ahead of the times, but such advice was becoming<br />
the rule rather than the exception:<br />
"Rise early. Eat simple food. Take plenty of exercise.<br />
Eat what best agrees with your system and resolutely<br />
abstain from what hurts you, however well you may like it.<br />
Have nothing at all to do with quacks and do not tamper<br />
with quack medicines. Let those who love to be invalids<br />
drink strong green tea, eat pickles, preserves and hot<br />
biscuits. Have your bed chamber well aired and have fresh<br />
linen every week. It is not healthy to sleep in heated rooms."
Others, too,<br />
97<br />
were worr^ang about the degeneration of<br />
what was generally termed the gentler sex and pondering<br />
over the good old days when women were useful as well<br />
as ornamental. Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, the influential<br />
editor of Godey's Ladies' Book, was beginning her life-long<br />
crusade in favor of exercise and health for women.<br />
Although <strong>doctors</strong> recommended sweeping, polishing furniture,<br />
rope-jumping, battledore, and modified calisthenics<br />
for sedentary females, Mrs. Hale recommended the spinning-wheel.<br />
"From the universal, yet gentle exercise it<br />
affords the limbs, the chest, and the whole frame, it is<br />
altogether the best mode of domestic calisthenics that has<br />
hitherto been devised."<br />
Milking as an exercise was advocated by some. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
pointed out that thirty years earlier it had been as hard to<br />
find a man milking as a woman mowing. But times had<br />
changed. Girls now hardly knew (or at least pretended not<br />
to know) whether milk came from the udder or the horns.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> was bad from many angles. Women were cleaner,<br />
more patient, and gentler. Men had to milk too early and<br />
too late. "<strong>The</strong> morning air would be bracing to their muscles,<br />
(if the modern girl has any muscles, for there begins<br />
to be a reasonable doubt in t<strong>his</strong> matter) ; and the odor of the<br />
cow has been long known to be, and is often recommended<br />
by physicians as medicinal."
DOCTORS: BLEED. BLISTER.<br />
AND PURGE<br />
CHAPTER III<br />
"Your chief anibition will be to deserve the confidence<br />
of society: your greatest happiness to extend and strengthen<br />
that confidence . , . you will ^nake science the ground<br />
work of your reputation; and acts of intelligence, honor<br />
and benevolence the material of the superstructure. You<br />
will thus become shining lights of the profession: you will<br />
sit down with the great ones of the earth: the learned will<br />
thirst after your conversation; the rich will contribute<br />
their homage, the poor will call you blessed, and your<br />
names will live and be held in honour"<br />
— Dr. Daniel Drake, address to the class<br />
of 1821 of theMedical College of Ohio.<br />
jLo the notion of many people who made a Uving by<br />
manual labor, lawyers, bankers, and to a certain extent<br />
<strong>doctors</strong>, were a parasitic class— useless and extravagant<br />
luxuries at the best. As frontier society became more complex,<br />
each of the vocations established its usefulness. First<br />
to do so were the <strong>doctors</strong>. In 1831 Dr. Enoch Hale wrote<br />
in the North American Revieiv: "We believe that there<br />
never was a time, when they were held in so high respect<br />
and confidence as at the present day; and probably in no<br />
part of the world is t<strong>his</strong> confidence more generally felt by
all classes of people, than among us." <strong>The</strong> passing of the<br />
99<br />
years made t<strong>his</strong> true in the West as well as in the East.<br />
Much has been written of the country doctor. He was<br />
an important figure in <strong>pioneer</strong> life. An individualist in an<br />
age of individualism, he conformed to no set type, but in<br />
general has fared well at the hands of <strong>his</strong>tory. Like the<br />
preacher, he often was a jack of several trades—he might<br />
farm, hunt, or do some smithing in odd hours. In the early<br />
days wolves and wildcats kept him company on the solitary<br />
night journeys through almost trackless woods, but<br />
<strong>his</strong> nerves were steady, and he knew that weird cries were<br />
not so dangerous as overhanging branches, hidden holes, and<br />
swollen streams. Like the judge and minister, he sometimes<br />
rode circuit over <strong>his</strong> territory. Tireless, fearless, often<br />
gruflf, yet sympathetic, the doctor maintained a personal<br />
relationship with <strong>his</strong> people more intimate and vital than<br />
that of minister or lawyer. Though frequently short of<br />
learning, intolerant of rivals, and given to petty quarrels,<br />
he was abundantly possessed of those qualities which made<br />
<strong>his</strong> humanity triumph over both nature and human selfishness,<br />
and himself usually a figure at the same time feared,<br />
loved, and venerated.<br />
<strong>The</strong> equipment of the country doctor was simple: mortar<br />
and pestle, a set of balances, some home-made splints<br />
and bandages, a few drugs, possibly a small assortment of<br />
instruments, perhaps a pewter bedpan, a few simple syringes,<br />
and pewter or crockery hot-water bottles. Occasionally<br />
a doctor had a pulsometer, a glass, dumb-bellshaped<br />
container about six inches long filled with colored<br />
liquid; when the patient held one end in <strong>his</strong> closed hand,<br />
air bubbles would rise to the other end. T<strong>his</strong> result was,<br />
of course, a simple physical rather than physiological action,<br />
and bore no actual relation to the pulse, but served to convince<br />
the patient that he had had a more thorough and<br />
accurate diagnosis. By the late 1830's most of the better<br />
equipped <strong>doctors</strong> also carried a stethoscope^, a set of tooth<br />
forceps, and a few obstetrical instruments. Naturally the<br />
doctor had a horse and saddle bags. In the absence of com-
100<br />
plicated equipment for diagnosis he relied upon <strong>his</strong> fingers,<br />
eyes, ears, and nose. Temperature and pulse he could feel;<br />
color of skin, lips, eyes, and fingernails meant much, as<br />
did the sound of voice, cough, and breathing of the patient.<br />
He could smell out a case of typhoid, measles, or milk<br />
sickness.<br />
A contemporary description by a member of the profession<br />
covers the essentials:<br />
"<strong>The</strong> doctor had to be <strong>his</strong> own pharmacist. He made<br />
<strong>his</strong> own p<strong>ills</strong> and tinctures, compounded all <strong>his</strong> medicines,<br />
and generally carried all he required, as, with saddle-bags<br />
across <strong>his</strong> horse, he wended <strong>his</strong> way from house to house,<br />
administering to the sick and ailing, always welcome and<br />
often regarded as an angel of mercy, although <strong>his</strong> homely<br />
garb and rough appearance looked anything but angelic.<br />
His life was one of peril, toil and privation. <strong>The</strong> country<br />
was new and thinly settled, and <strong>his</strong> rides were long and<br />
solitary; <strong>his</strong> patients were scattered over a wide expanse<br />
of territory; <strong>his</strong> travel was mostly performed on horseback,<br />
and its extent and duration was measured by the endurance<br />
of himself and <strong>his</strong> horse. He struggled through almost<br />
unfathomable mud and swamps and swollen streams. He<br />
was often compelled to make long detours to cross or avoid<br />
the treacherous slough. His rest was often taken in the<br />
From<br />
saddle, sometimes in the cabin of the lonely settler.<br />
necessity he was self-reliant and courageous. Every emergency,<br />
however grave, he was generally compelled to meet<br />
alone and unaided, as it was seldom assistance could be procured<br />
without too great an expenditure of time and money.<br />
His fees were small and <strong>his</strong> services were often paid for in<br />
promises, seldom in money, of which there was but little.<br />
<strong>The</strong> products of the country, called by the people 'truck',<br />
was the general and most reliable circulating medium, and<br />
with t<strong>his</strong> the doctor was usually paid. But there is a bright<br />
side to t<strong>his</strong> picture. <strong>The</strong> kindly life of a new country, and<br />
the dependence of its inhabitants upon each other, gave the<br />
doctor a strong hold upon the affection and gratitude of
101<br />
those among whom he hved and labored. <strong>The</strong>y loved him<br />
v/hen living, and mourned for him when dead."^<br />
As indicated above, the pay of the country doctor was<br />
uncertain, and when received, was often in the form of<br />
produce. At the end of a year's service, including care in<br />
two smallpox epidemics, an early Wisconsin doctor had<br />
received $68 in cash.^ Even as late as 1861, when the population<br />
of Chicago was more than one hundred thirty-five<br />
thousand, the city physician received an annual salary of<br />
only $600 and was required to furnish all medicines.* Another<br />
doctor, at the forks of the Kalamazoo, apparently<br />
for somewhat less than a year's work reaped much gratitude<br />
and "For service, advice and medicine— 12^c," and<br />
an old German physician in Illinois in 1842 received a stove<br />
for sixteen office visits ("at 37 ^c"), solutions, and powders.°<br />
Perhaps the patients were acting on the belief that<br />
to pay the doctor in full would cause another illness in<br />
the family. In a day of scarcity of specie and small change,<br />
Indiana, in 1825 issued script b<strong>ills</strong> "good for one dose<br />
of medicine." <strong>The</strong>se were known as "Puke B<strong>ills</strong>."<br />
and prevalence of makeshifts, a Doctor Murdock of Brookville,<br />
Creditorpatients<br />
rarely came back for the second dose.^<br />
Charges for medical services varied. Village and country<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> were not organized and fees were not standardized.<br />
Dr. Drake said that the ordinary charge was 25 cents<br />
a mile, "one half being deducted and the other paid in<br />
provender for <strong>his</strong> horse, or produce for <strong>his</strong> family." In the<br />
earlier years the average country doctor would probably<br />
settle for 25 to 50 cents for a local visit, or a dollar if he<br />
sat up all night. <strong>The</strong> Indiana law of 1816 fixed fees at<br />
1 2 Yz cents per mile of travel by day, double by night, but<br />
these fees were not strictly adhered to. In the towns informal<br />
agreements were sometimes made. Springfield, Illinois,<br />
physicians, for instance, agreed in 1840 to the following<br />
scale: daytime visit in town, $1; up to four miles, $2; each<br />
additional mile, 50 cents; prices double for night visits;<br />
verbal advice, $1; each dose of medicine, 50 cents; vaccination,<br />
$1; natural parturition, $5 to $10; fractures, $5
102<br />
to $10; amputation of leg or arm, $25 to $100; lithotomy,<br />
$100 to $200."^ <strong>The</strong> Bill of Rates adopted by the Belmont<br />
County (Ohio) Medical Society in 1847 included generally<br />
lower fees: visit in town, 50 cents; first mile in the country,<br />
$1; venesection and tooth extraction, 25 cents; vaccination,<br />
50 cents; doses of medicine, 25 and 50 cents; parturition,<br />
$4 to $10; fractures, $5 to $20; amputations, $50 to<br />
$100.^ Prices adopted by the Cincinnati Medical Association<br />
in 1821 had been similar.^<br />
Doctors in larger towns and young cities of the "West had<br />
more pretentious establishments than the country doctor.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir equipment was more extensive—instruments, libraries,<br />
and stables. Drug stores or apothecary shops were<br />
at hand; apprentice students or junior partners did a lot of<br />
the routine work. A few, of course, catered only to the<br />
"silver doorbell" clientele, dressed the part, and charged<br />
what were, for the period, fancy prices. <strong>The</strong> offices of smalltown<br />
<strong>doctors</strong>, frequently in their homes, were usually run<br />
informally. For instance, in 1828, Dr. William Tichenor<br />
of Indianapolis advertised that: "His shop is two doors<br />
below Mr. Hawkin's tavern, where he generally will be<br />
found, except when attending to professional business."<br />
As noted earlier, the frontiersman, self-reliant, proud,<br />
and generally poor, was usually reluctant to call the doctor,<br />
considering it<br />
a waste of both time and money. When the<br />
doctor was called, he often had to compete with all present<br />
and thereabouts to justify <strong>his</strong> syster* Some people thought<br />
that diseases were part of the penalty man paid for <strong>his</strong><br />
sins, bence only God could effect a cure; others blamed the<br />
devil and were willing to stick by remedies which he understood.<br />
But for a fatality it was the doctor who was held<br />
responsible, since he had had the last chance at the patient.<br />
As one old doctor said, "<strong>The</strong> principal position of the doctor<br />
was dealing in second hand goods, and a bad quality<br />
at that."^° Hence, perhaps, the bold treatment in these,<br />
the heroic days of medicine in which it was said of the<br />
doctor: "He came every day, he purged, he bled, he blis-
103<br />
tered, he puked, he saHvated <strong>his</strong> patient, he never cured<br />
him."^^<br />
Since the medical theory of the regulars as well as that<br />
of the irregular sects, rested upon an empiric rather than<br />
a scientific basis, one man's opinion was about as good as<br />
another's. From the days of Hippocrates, <strong>doctors</strong> without<br />
number had based their practice on the idea of the four<br />
elements in man— earth, water, air, and fire. Corresponding<br />
to these were the four natural humors— melancholy<br />
or black bile, cold and dry (earth) ;<br />
phlegm, cold and moist<br />
(water) ; blood, hot and moist (air) ; and choler, or yellow<br />
bile (fire). <strong>The</strong> general theory was that man's normal constitution,<br />
or "complexion," represented a balance among<br />
these natural humors, but that an excess of any one would<br />
lead to trouble. More serious still were the effects of the<br />
unnatural humors, of which there were a number.<br />
Although medieval medicine was aware of certain specific<br />
diseases, such as smallpox and leprosy, and Thomas<br />
Sydenham (1624-89), "the father of bleeding," described<br />
measles, dysentery, syphilis, and gout, most <strong>doctors</strong> in the<br />
mid-seventeenth century still thought in terms of humors<br />
and one disease. Further progress was made during the next<br />
century in differentiating diseases and causes. William<br />
Cullen (1710-90) of Edinburgh listed hundreds of diseases;<br />
<strong>his</strong> pupil, John Brown, classified all into two types: those<br />
due to tension and those due to extreme relaxation. Dr.<br />
Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), the most famous and influential<br />
American doctor of <strong>his</strong> day, went a step further.<br />
He stated to <strong>his</strong> students that "there is but one disease in<br />
the world." T<strong>his</strong> being assumed to be true, the depletion<br />
treatment— blood-letting and purging — was universally<br />
applicable.<br />
Dr. John Esten Cooke of Transylvania and Louisville,<br />
who published an eleven hundred-page, two-volume treatise<br />
on 'Pathology and <strong>The</strong>rapeutics in 1828, carried the<br />
Rush purge and calomel theory to the extreme. He believed<br />
that all diseases, particularly fevers, arose from cold or<br />
malaria, which weakened the heart and thus produced an
104<br />
accumulation of blood in the vena cavae and in the adjoining<br />
large veins of the liver. Consequently, calomel and<br />
other cathartics which acted on that organ were the cure.<br />
"If calomel did not salivate and opium did not constipate,<br />
there is no telling what we could do in the practice of<br />
physic," represented the main idea of Cooke, who has been<br />
called "the most elaborate of all American Systematizers."^^<br />
Not all<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> reduced the nature of diseases to such a<br />
simple scheme as Rush and Cooke. In general, disregarding<br />
individual systems, during the eighteenth century and to<br />
about the middle of the nineteenth, the regulars— later<br />
called "allopaths" by those not concurring with their practices—<br />
operated either on the theory that diseases could be<br />
cured by remedies which produced opposite symptoms, or<br />
on the assumption that a disease could be transferred to a<br />
less important organ or overcome by a new and stronger<br />
derangement. Under the first principle heat would be<br />
opposed to cold, narcotics to wakefulness, stimulants to<br />
enfeebling diseases, and blood letting, purgatives, and sudorifics<br />
to inflammatory affections. Under the second, a<br />
nervous disorder might be relieved by exciting violent<br />
action in the intestines, a pain in the hip by application of<br />
the hot iron,<br />
moxa on the skin.<br />
or inflammation in the lungs by use of the<br />
If theory was in doubt, practice was even less certain.<br />
Some medical scholars admitted that there appeared to be<br />
even more false facts than erroneous theories. "<strong>The</strong>re is no<br />
department of our art so overrun with the fruits of false<br />
experience as the materia medica."<br />
"Of these virtues [of medical substances] we know nothing<br />
definitely: all we know is, that some are capable of<br />
altering the mode of actions, others stimulating, many<br />
counter-stimulating; some even irritating, and others quieting,<br />
so as to produce either a healthy disposition, and action<br />
in a diseased part, or to change the disease to that action<br />
which accords with the medicine, or to quiet where there<br />
is<br />
too much action, and our reasoning goes no farther than<br />
to make a proper application with these virtues. <strong>The</strong> diffi-
105<br />
culty is to ascertain the connection of substance and virtue,<br />
and to apply t<strong>his</strong> in restraining or altering any diseased<br />
action; and as that cannot be demonstrated a priori, it<br />
reduces the practice of medicine to experiment, and t<strong>his</strong><br />
not built upon well determined data, but upon experience,<br />
resulting from probable data."^^<br />
Mercurials, calomel, opium, niter, Glauber's salts,<br />
Dover's<br />
powders, jalap, Peruvian bark— and by the 1840's,<br />
quinine— constituted the bulk of the materia medica of<br />
the regulars. <strong>The</strong>se medicines were given in varying quantities<br />
and combinations for different ailments. A favorite<br />
purgative was "10 and 10," a mixture of calomel and jalap<br />
in equal parts, given every six hours until a slight ptyalism,<br />
or salivation, occurred. Not all doses were so conservative,<br />
nor was the salivation always "slight." One Louisiana<br />
doctor, whose practices probably did not differ much from<br />
those of the Middle West, confided to Dr. Drake that he<br />
had prescribed enough calomel to load, and withdrawn<br />
enough blood to float, the steamboat General Jackson. P<strong>ills</strong><br />
were often as large as cherries and twenty to one hundred<br />
grains of calomel were given at a dose. Not many, however,<br />
went so far as Dr. John Esten Cooke of Lexington,<br />
who gave a pound of calomel in one day to a cholera patient<br />
without fatal result,^^ but softening of gums, loss of teeth,<br />
and disfigurement did occur. Dr. John Moorhead, "Old<br />
Hydrarg," learned but somewhat dry lecturer at Cincinnati's<br />
Ohio Medical College in the 1830's, talking of salivation,<br />
said: "Some of your patients, hereafter, upon a morning<br />
visit, will" (and here he carried <strong>his</strong> forefinger and<br />
thumb to <strong>his</strong> upper right canine, and motioned, as if extracting<br />
it), "will reproachfully say, 'See here. Doctor!'"<br />
And another doctor said he had seen calomel "Cause the<br />
teeth, those valuable instruments of our most substantial<br />
enjoyments, to rot, perhaps fall out; and the upper and<br />
lower jaw bones to come out, in the form of horse shoes!"<br />
So prevalent was the hydrargyric propensity, especially<br />
in the treatment of fevers, that a doctor who failed to<br />
conform was in the popular mind almost deemed guilty of
106<br />
malpractice. Whether the ballad on "Calomel" was written<br />
as propaganda by some member of the botanic faith<br />
or by a suffering patient is not known, but it records what<br />
in time became a general reaction. One version, later set<br />
to music, had eleven stanzas and ended:<br />
''<strong>The</strong> man in Death begins to groane<br />
<strong>The</strong> fatal job for him is done<br />
His soule is wing'd for heaven or hell<br />
A sacrifice to Calomel.<br />
Physicians of m-y former choice<br />
Receive my counsel and advice<br />
Be not offended though I tell<br />
<strong>The</strong> dier effects of CalomeL<br />
And ivhen I must Resign my breath<br />
Pray let me die a natural death<br />
And bid you all a long farewell<br />
Without one dose of Calomel"<br />
Cinchona (Peruvian bark or Jesuit bark) seems to have<br />
been used for the treatment of fevers since 1600, when it<br />
was employed in Luxa by the Indians of Malacota. Long<br />
told, but recently disproved, was the story that the Spanish<br />
corregidor of t<strong>his</strong> town sent to the wife of the Count<br />
Cinchon, viceroy of Peru, a packet of the bark which<br />
immediately effected her recovery from an intermittent<br />
fever; after her return to Spain she was said to have contributed<br />
to the popularization of t<strong>his</strong> remedy. Jesuits used<br />
it in Europe and for some time held a monopoly of the<br />
importation of the bark.<br />
In 1820 the extract quinine was isolated from the bark<br />
by Pelletier and Caventou of Paris. Three years later a<br />
Philadelphia chemist set up the first quinine factory in<br />
America. C. and J. Bates of Cincinnati in 1824 were advertising<br />
"Genuine Sulphate Quinine. A few ounces just<br />
In 1826 Dr. Henry Perrine, botanist<br />
received and for sale."<br />
and doctor who had practiced at Ripley, Illinois, 1819-24,<br />
published an article in the Philadelphia Journal of the
107<br />
Medical and Physical Sciences, in which he advocated the<br />
use of quinine during the febrile stages of malaria. T<strong>his</strong><br />
was perhaps the first article on the subject to be published<br />
in America. Nevertheless, the prejudice against such use<br />
of quinine continued to prevail among the "faculty."<br />
One notable exception was Dr. John Sappington of<br />
Arrow Rock, Saline County, Missouri, who as a medical<br />
student at the <strong>University</strong> of Pennsylvania in 1814-15 did<br />
not agree with the depletive treatment of fevers favored<br />
by <strong>his</strong> teachers. Even earlier he had stated that he was<br />
opposed to the exhaustive practices then in vogue, and that<br />
"further contact with them only served to confirm me of<br />
their errors." Records fail to show at exactly what time<br />
Dr. Sappington began to use quinine in <strong>his</strong> private practice,<br />
but it seems that he adopted it almost immediately upon<br />
its introduction into t<strong>his</strong> country. When the regulars violently<br />
opposed <strong>his</strong> use of the drug. Dr. Sappington concocted<br />
"Anti-Fever P<strong>ills</strong>," containing quinine well disguised<br />
in licorice, myrrh, and oil of sassafras, and in 1832 began<br />
advertising them to the public as blantantly as "Drs."<br />
Swaim, Dyott, Lamott, and scores of other "patent" medicine<br />
venders shouted their wares. <strong>The</strong>se p<strong>ills</strong>, "to-wit— an<br />
agreeable, and gentle yet efficient cathartic pill; an admirable<br />
diaphoretive pill, and a most powerful yet safe and<br />
pleasant tonic pill," sold at $1.50 per box of "40 of 3 kinds<br />
of p<strong>ills</strong>." A staff of from fifteen to twenty-five salesmen<br />
was put on the road; the bells of frontier towns were said<br />
to have been rung every evening at dusk to remind the residents<br />
to take Dr. Sappington's p<strong>ills</strong>. In the next ten years<br />
over a million sales were reported in the western and southern<br />
states and the Republic of Texas. In 1844 Sappington<br />
published at Philadelphia <strong>his</strong> <strong>The</strong>ory and Treatment of<br />
Fevers in which he revealed <strong>his</strong> secret in an effort to induce<br />
an even more widespread use of quinine.<br />
Despite the efforts of t<strong>his</strong> <strong>pioneer</strong>, not until the 1840's<br />
was the drug widely used. In 1841 the $100 reward offered<br />
by the State Medical Society of Tennessee for the best essay<br />
on the treatment of fevers was given to Dr. Lunsford P.
108<br />
Yandell of Louisville, who had recommended, even as Dr.<br />
Sappington had previously done, the early administering of<br />
quinine. His suggestion was soon adopted by the younger<br />
members of the profession; others gradually fell into line/^<br />
In these earlier years the cost of quinine made its use<br />
practically impossible. "<strong>The</strong> first I used cost at the rate of<br />
$30.00 per ounce," said an old Indiana practitioner.^^ Another<br />
doctor as late as 1846 drove fat cattle from Hancock<br />
County in Indiana to Indianapolis and sold them at $7.50<br />
per head to buy quinine at<br />
$6 to $8 per ounce. <strong>The</strong> price<br />
in Detroit in 1828 was the same.<br />
To the <strong>pioneer</strong> patient the lancet, the stand-by of the<br />
regulars in treatment of fevers, was a familiar implement.<br />
One of the common types was much like a pocket knife<br />
with a small cleaver on the end of the blade; others were<br />
merely long, tapering blades.^^ Improvements brought the<br />
spring lancet which could be set to penetrate to a definite<br />
depth. <strong>The</strong> old jackknife, well sharpened on the doctor's<br />
bootleg, would suffice in an emergency. Bleeding and calomel<br />
treatments were most ably propagated by the philosophical<br />
Dr. Rush of the College of Philadelphia and the<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Pennsylvania.<br />
Bleeding, according to Benezet, was considered proper<br />
at the beginning of all inflammatory fevers, inflammation<br />
of the lungs, intestines, bladder, stomach, kidneys, throat<br />
and eyes, and good for coughs, headaches, rheumatism,<br />
apoplexy, and epilepsy. A perusal of the medical books,<br />
however, would find it recommended by some one or other<br />
for all <strong>ills</strong>, from abcesses and angina pectoris, through putrid<br />
sore throat, to wounds of the chest. But some <strong>doctors</strong><br />
cautioned that if the blood was extracted from the right<br />
arm when the pain was on the left side, death would result<br />
from drawing the pain across the heart. "Bleed to syncope"<br />
was advice to practitioners almost as inevitable as<br />
"pour into a well-greased pan and bake until brown" is to<br />
the modern cook. <strong>The</strong> arms of the patients were often so<br />
scarred from repeated bleeding that locating a vein for<br />
another bleeding became a difficult task. "<strong>The</strong> lancet and
109<br />
calomel are the two sheet-anchors in t<strong>his</strong> disease [fever],<br />
and irresolution or timidity in the employment of them at<br />
the beginning of it, may cost the sufferer <strong>his</strong> life." But<br />
timidity and irresolution were not outstanding weaknesses<br />
of the <strong>pioneer</strong> doctor. "To bleed a patient who cannot be<br />
raised from <strong>his</strong> pillow without fainting, whose pulse is<br />
nearly imperceptible ... at first view rash and unwarrantable<br />
. . . flows with difl&culty . . . recourse should<br />
be had to the jugglars . . .<br />
!" So sanguinary was one<br />
Indianapolis physician reported to have been that he had<br />
a trough constructed to carry the blood of <strong>his</strong> patients<br />
from <strong>his</strong> office.^^<br />
Although some physicians were a little more liberal in<br />
their blood-taking than others, most textbooks of the<br />
period recommended the withdrawing of ten to twelve<br />
ounces at a time. Dr. Samuel Gross fixed the usual amount<br />
at sixteen to twenty-four ounces and said that the patient<br />
felt cheated if less were removed. <strong>The</strong> Cyclopaedia of Practical<br />
Medicine published at Philadelphia in 1845 recommended<br />
adjusting the amount to the action of the heart<br />
and pulse; for apoplexy it suggested forty to fifty ounces.<br />
Directions concerning the frequency of blood-letting were<br />
not so definite. Some patients, no doubt, reached the proper<br />
stage of debility earlier than others. In 1811 the Medical<br />
Repository reported the case of Captain Niblett, from<br />
whom was taken in fifty bleedings six hundred ounces of<br />
blood in a period of two months. T<strong>his</strong> was in addition to<br />
blood taken by cups and leeches. It is hard to believe that<br />
the victim lasted for two months, much less recovered,<br />
but he did.<br />
Besides the lancet, leeches and cups were used to bleed.<br />
Cups were of various types. Some were bell-shaped and<br />
made of glass; others were of glass and brass with stopcocks<br />
or valves. <strong>The</strong> air might be sucked out by mouth<br />
or hot sealing wax applied within the cup to expel the air.<br />
In use, too, was the lancet-cup, a brass box about two inches<br />
square with one end slotted to contain the concealed knives.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se were expelled by means of a spring which, when
no<br />
released by a trigger, swept them upward and forward at<br />
the same time. Ordinarily twelve knives were used, six<br />
moving counter to the other six. As described by a patient,<br />
the doctor put the ". . . brass box to my left side, pressed<br />
hard down on it, pulled a trigger, and twelve sharp knives<br />
slashed into my flesh. <strong>The</strong>n he burned a piece of alcoholsaturated<br />
cotton in a small glass, or cup. T<strong>his</strong> drove the air<br />
out. While still aflame but expiring, t<strong>his</strong> was applied over<br />
the twelve little incisions which had been made in my side.<br />
As the air was exhausted in the cup and no more could<br />
get in, the cup 'sucked' blood. "^®<br />
Leeches, after being dried, were encouraged to take hold<br />
by covering the skin of the patient with cream, sugar, or<br />
blood. If still indifferent to the job, they might be activated<br />
by throwing them into a saucer of beer, "until they<br />
become quite lively. It will be seen with astonishment how<br />
quickly they bite."^*^<br />
<strong>The</strong> more the patient was bled the weaker he got and<br />
the more he needed to be bled. For fever and delirium he<br />
was bled until faint and relaxed; an emetic of ipecac was<br />
administered, then a cathartic (calomel), and possibly<br />
opium to allay irritation of the internal organs. Meanwhile<br />
the sufferer was probably confined in a closed room, sandwiched<br />
between feather beds, and forbidden cooling drinks.<br />
Few <strong>doctors</strong> paid as much attention to rebuilding the patient's<br />
strength as in depleting it. Those who did, used tonics<br />
such as mercury, iron, copper, arsenic, lime, and nitric<br />
acid. J. Murray in <strong>his</strong> Elements of Materia Medica and<br />
Pharmacy (Philadelphia, 1808) also named gentian,<br />
oranges, and lemons.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following description, written in the light of later<br />
knowledge, indicates that the patient was not always satisfied<br />
with t<strong>his</strong> sort of treatment:<br />
"<strong>The</strong>n he would say, 'Yes, I see, all run down, very weak,<br />
bilious, debilitated. We must draw off all the bad blood<br />
and give you a chance to make new and get strong again,<br />
give me a bowl and a bandage.' <strong>The</strong>y were brought and the<br />
poor victims gave up poor thin blood that was merely
Ill<br />
keeping the heart beating .... <strong>The</strong> doctor forgot <strong>his</strong> lance<br />
one day and so took <strong>his</strong> jack knife and sharpened it on <strong>his</strong><br />
boot leg and bled all of the family of Mr. Reagan. When<br />
he came to little Susan the hurt and fright were so great<br />
that she died in <strong>his</strong> arms. He came to our house but mother<br />
would not let him touch one of her children. Father was<br />
growing worse and tried the doctor's remedy, in fifteen<br />
minutes he v/as dead. Another doctor came who said that<br />
was no way to do, he never bled <strong>his</strong> patients, he wound them<br />
in a wet sheet. A promising young man . . . was wrapped<br />
in cold, wet sheets and died. Yet another doctor came and<br />
he sent a man and team down to Grand Ledge to get a load<br />
of hemlock bark which he would steep strong and give them<br />
hemlock sweats when they were so weak that they died<br />
from heat and exhaustion. You may ask did these <strong>doctors</strong><br />
get rich. Oh, no, they got the shakes, took some of their<br />
own medicine and soon died."^^<br />
was necessary<br />
To cure the dumb ague some thought it<br />
to bring on the shakes.<br />
"Carry then your patient into the<br />
passage between the two cabins— strip off all <strong>his</strong> clothes<br />
that he may lie naked in the cold air and upon a bare sacking—<br />
and then and there pour over and upon him successive<br />
buckets of cold spring water, and continue until he<br />
has a decided and pretty powerful smart chance of a shake."<br />
If the shakes became too violent the treatment of Dr.<br />
John Sellman of Cincinnati might be called upon: "As<br />
often as the fitts come on put her into warm water nearly<br />
to the armpits and as soon as taken out give twelve or fifteen<br />
drops of paragoric, but remember the paragoric will not be<br />
repeated oftener than once in<br />
four or five hours, tho' the<br />
frequency of warm bathing will be regulated by the<br />
urgency of the fitts."^^ Wet sheets wrapped around the<br />
sufferer were also used to drive out the fever. If pneumonia<br />
resulted, the cure was bleeding, tartar emetic, and<br />
calomel.<br />
Another "heroic" in general use was the blister. T<strong>his</strong><br />
was an external application of mustard or the Spanish fly,<br />
ground and powdered, used to cause further irritation and
112<br />
redness of skin and blistering. One Dr. Shelton announced<br />
in the Cincinnati Western Spy of September 19, 1800,<br />
that he had discovered "a species of bug which abound in<br />
potato patches, having all the virtues of the Spanish, which<br />
cost twenty dollars per pound, while more of these American<br />
cantharides may be obtained, than will be wanted for<br />
domestic use, with no expense and little trouble." One<br />
skeptic later had "no doubt that these bugs were all humbugs."^^<br />
Sometimes the skin was rubbed with a strong<br />
vinegar to hasten the formation of a vesicle, then the epidermis<br />
removed and drugs, such as quinine, placed on the<br />
denuded surface. <strong>The</strong> flow of water from a pricked blister<br />
was considered almost as good as bleeding.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there were the moxa and the seton. <strong>The</strong>se were<br />
used to produce counter irritation or to provide means of<br />
escape for "peccant humors." <strong>The</strong> seton was a thread or<br />
horsehair introduced through a cut in a fold of the skin<br />
and kept there to irritate and inflame or "maintain an<br />
issue." Often a pea or small lump of lint would be kept<br />
<strong>The</strong> moxa was a coil of<br />
in an incision in the thigh or leg.<br />
carded cotton treated so as to burn slowly, so that when<br />
burned on the skin it would irritate steadily. By judicious<br />
use of the bellows "we should blow so that the moxa may<br />
burn as slowly as possible without allowing it to be extinguished."<br />
In cauterizing infections and wounds it was the<br />
iron heated to gray heat which was most irritating and<br />
torturous, hence the most effective.<br />
No indirect attacks, these, but frontal assaults. As one<br />
of the stalwart <strong>doctors</strong> of the days of vigorous medication<br />
said: "We went into it with our sleeves rolled up, and generally<br />
came out satisfied with the result of our work."^*<br />
And another: "We used no manner of temporizing treatment,<br />
but aimed our agents directly at the extermination<br />
of diseases. Opium, ipecac, tartarized antimony, nitrate of<br />
potassa, spirits of mindereri and spirits of niter, with other<br />
means too tedious to mention, were all frequently brought<br />
into requisition. Under the above manner of treating a<br />
case of remittent fever it was no uncommon thing on our
113<br />
second visit to find our patient sitting up feeling 'pretty<br />
well, except a little weak,' and within a few days able to<br />
return to <strong>his</strong> ordinary avocations."^" In case of death there<br />
probably was no second visit. It was said that the rigorous<br />
system of the <strong>pioneer</strong> doctor "killed quick but cured slow."<br />
<strong>The</strong> doctor himself was sometimes referred to as "Death on<br />
the Pale Horse."<br />
"When we hear of a man's getting well,<br />
after being given over by the <strong>doctors</strong>, we can't help thinking<br />
how lucky he was to be given over by the <strong>doctors</strong>."<br />
That the <strong>doctors</strong> were sincere in the practice of such treatment<br />
is evidenced by the fact that many tried their own<br />
medicine with fatal results. That any patients survived<br />
both disease and cure speaks wonders for their constitutions<br />
and powers of resistance.<br />
Though it was sometimes hard to distinguish the practice<br />
of the regulars from the home remedies of the <strong>pioneer</strong>s,<br />
the regular practitioner in the "West did not noticeably lag<br />
behind the general advance of medical science. As Dr.<br />
William H. Welch, first dean of <strong>The</strong> Johns Hopkins Medical<br />
School, later said: "<strong>The</strong> best of these men were, withal,<br />
abreast in knowledge, training and skill with their contemporaries<br />
of the Atlantic coast; they were men of striking<br />
originality, substantial contributors to the sum of medical<br />
knowledge and art, powerful influences in the material, as<br />
well as the medical development of what was then the far<br />
west."^^ Many of the discoveries and inventions of the<br />
period were adopted at quite an early date by frontier<br />
physicians. Vaccination was practiced in the West the next<br />
year after its introduction on the Atlantic coast. <strong>The</strong> stethoscope,<br />
invented by Rene T. H. Laennec in 1817 had made<br />
its way to the interior by the 1820's. By the end of the<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong> period microscopes were also being used by middle<br />
western <strong>doctors</strong>.<br />
An editorial in the Western Lancet, 1847, within a year<br />
after Morton's public demonstration of painless surgery in<br />
the Massachusetts General Hospital, stated that anaesthesia<br />
"is employed at t<strong>his</strong> time not only in every city and village<br />
in the United States, but it has likewise been introduced
114<br />
into the principal cities of Europe." Unquestionably the<br />
rapidity of its popular adoption was increased by the<br />
"laughing gas" sessions which had been held as early as<br />
1821. In that year the August 1 issue of the Warren, Ohio,<br />
Western Reserve Chronicle advertised:<br />
"Dr. Brooks proposes to administer 10 to 15 doses of the<br />
protoxide of azote, or the exhilarating gas, in the Warren<br />
Hotel on Tuesday next at 3:00 o'clock p. m. <strong>The</strong> sensations<br />
produced by t<strong>his</strong> gas are highly pleasurable and resemble<br />
those in some degree attendant on the pleasant period<br />
of intoxication. Great exhilaration, an irresistible propensity<br />
to laugh, dance and sing, a rapid flow of vivid ideas, an<br />
unusual fitness for muscular exertion, are the ordinary feelings<br />
it produces. <strong>The</strong>se pleasant sensations are not succeeded<br />
by any debilitating effects upon the system. A more full<br />
account of t<strong>his</strong> gas will be given on the evening of the<br />
exhibition. Tickets of admission may be had at the printing<br />
office."<br />
Three years later Cincinnati citizens were informed in<br />
the February 17 National Republican and Ohio Political<br />
Register that "On Thursday evening the Exhilarating Gas<br />
will be administered." Evidently they enjoyed the performance,<br />
for the next month a similar notice appeared.<br />
Dr. R. D. Mussey, Professor of Surgery in the Ohio<br />
Medical College, reported in the Ohio Medical and Surgical<br />
Journal, September, 1848, that he had used both ether and<br />
chloroform. In <strong>his</strong> experience ether had not proved so satisfactory<br />
as chloroform, which in thirty-eight cases had<br />
caused "not an unpleasant sequel." Dr. Yandell, of the<br />
Louisville Medical Institute, stated in the January, 1849,<br />
Western Journal that up to the first of April, 1848, sixteen<br />
operations had been performed on patients who had inhaled<br />
ether or chloroform without a single fatality. Dr. Zana<br />
Pitcher of Michigan recorded the use of anaesthetics in<br />
1849 in ligation of the common carotid. Dr. E. C. Bidwell<br />
of Keene, Ohio, in 18 50 reported the use of chloroform in<br />
labor. Dr. M. B. Wright, professor at the Ohio Medical<br />
College, believed that if mothers suffered no pain they
115<br />
would have no strong affection for their children, since he<br />
felt that "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." By<br />
July, 1852, Dr. Mussey wrote in the Ohio Medical and<br />
Surgical Journal of the use of chloroform and ether without<br />
injury in more than six hundred operations."<br />
Surgery had made some progress since the time of the<br />
American Revolution, when operations were often mere<br />
butcheries, fractures were clumsily and painfully treated,<br />
and antiseptic surgery and anaesthesia unknown. No small<br />
part of that progress might be traced to frontier regions,<br />
where conditions incident to life made quick and bold<br />
decisions on the part of attending physicians a necessity.<br />
Important contributions were made by western <strong>doctors</strong><br />
who possessed little in the way of instruments or facilities,<br />
but much of daring and courage.<br />
In 1809 Dr. Ephraim McDowell, of Danville, Kentucky,<br />
who had more than a local reputation as a surgeon, was<br />
called to attend a <strong>pioneer</strong> wife who seemed pregnant but<br />
had passed her time with no sign of delivery. McDowell<br />
decided it was a tumor which must be removed immediately,<br />
but so dangerous and unprecedented was the proposed<br />
operation that he would not attempt it except in <strong>his</strong> own<br />
oflSce. <strong>The</strong> woman mounted a horse, rested the protuberance<br />
on the pommel of the saddle, and rode sixty miles to<br />
Danville in midwinter. It was said that a committee of<br />
local <strong>doctors</strong> and prominent citizens endeavored to prevent<br />
the operation. Doctor and patient, however, had made<br />
their decision. "<strong>The</strong> day having arrived, and the patient<br />
being on the table, I marked with a pen the course of the<br />
incision to be made, desiring him [<strong>his</strong> nephew, Joseph Nash<br />
McDowell] to make the external opening, which, in part,<br />
he did; I then took the knife, and completed the operation<br />
..." while the patient gritted her teeth and recited psalms.<br />
Five days later the patient made her own bed, and on the<br />
twenty-fifth day drove home, to live thirty-one years<br />
longer.^^ Again in 1 8 1 3 and 1816 Dr. McDowell performed<br />
similar operations, but when he published <strong>his</strong> article "Three<br />
Cases of Extirpation of Diseased Ovaries" in the Philadel-
116<br />
phia Eclectic Repertory and Analytical Review in October,<br />
1816, he was not believed until he demonstrated two other<br />
operations.<br />
In Newton, Ohio, in 1827, Dr. John Richmond performed<br />
the first recorded Caesarean section west of the<br />
Alleghenies. Some idea of the magnitude of <strong>his</strong> task might<br />
be obtained from <strong>his</strong> own report:<br />
"I had no recourse to cordials, for these could not be<br />
obtained. I was seven miles from home, and had but few<br />
medicines with me. ... I requested advice, which, however,<br />
could not be obtained, on account of high water in<br />
the Little Miami and the darkness of the night. . . . After<br />
doing all in my power for her preservation, and feeling<br />
myself entirely in the dark as to her situation, and finding<br />
that whatever was done, must be done soon, and feeling a<br />
deep and solemn sense of my responsibility, with only a<br />
case of common pocket instruments, about one o'clock at<br />
night, I commenced the Caesarean Section. Here I must<br />
take the liberty to digress from my subject, and relate the<br />
condition of the house, which was made of logs that were<br />
green, and put together not more than a week before. <strong>The</strong><br />
crevices were not chinked, there was no chimney, nor<br />
chamber floor. <strong>The</strong> night was stormy and windy, insomuch,<br />
that the assistants had to hold blankets to keep the candles<br />
from being blown out. Under these circumstances it is<br />
hard to conceive of the state of my feelings, when I was<br />
convinced that the patient must die,<br />
or the operation be<br />
performed. . . . <strong>The</strong> patient never complained of pain<br />
during the whole course of the cure. She commenced work<br />
in twenty-four days from the operation, and in the fifth<br />
week walked a mile and back the same day.""^<br />
Laryngotomy was successfully performed by an Ohio<br />
surgeon in t<strong>his</strong> same year. Dr. Erastus B. Wolcott of Milwaukee<br />
in 1862 is credited with making a nephrectomy<br />
(removal of the kidney), eight years before the first one<br />
was reported from Berlin, and in 1870 Dr. Solon Marks,<br />
also of Milwaukee, performed <strong>his</strong> most famous operation,<br />
the removal of a bullet from the region of the heart, where
117<br />
the patient had carried it since 1864, "probably the first<br />
operation ever reported for suture of a heart wound." Dr.<br />
John S. Bobbs of IndianapoKs in 1867 <strong>pioneer</strong>ed in cholecystotomy<br />
(opening gall bladder for removal of stone ).^*'<br />
<strong>The</strong> Lexington Intelligencer, December 9, 1836, considered<br />
Dr. Benjamin Winslow Dudley, of the Transylvania<br />
Medical College, the first surgeon in the West to remove a<br />
cataract from the eye. During <strong>his</strong> long surgical career he<br />
was said to have made over two hundred lithotomies (cutting<br />
for stone in the bladder) with only four per cent mortality;<br />
more than one hundred of these were done before<br />
a single death was recorded. <strong>The</strong> Kentucky Gazette for<br />
April 11, 1827, reported three lithotomies performed by<br />
him in one day. Dr. Dudley also successfully ligated the<br />
subclavian artery for axillary aneurysm (soft tumor, containing<br />
blood, arising from diseased arterial coats) in 1825,<br />
and the common carotid for an intracranial aneurysm in<br />
1841. In 1828 he published a report of five successful cases<br />
in which he had trephined the skull for the relief of epilepsy<br />
due to pressure on the brain. He was probably the first<br />
surgeon in the United States to perform t<strong>his</strong> operation.<br />
Dr. Dudley was among the first <strong>doctors</strong> of the Middle West<br />
to discard the lancet; the stress which he laid upon the use<br />
of boiled or boiling water in surgery at that early time is<br />
worthy of comment. He emphasized preparatory treatment,<br />
to which he was more inclined to attribute <strong>his</strong> success<br />
than to <strong>his</strong> superior skill.^^<br />
In the twenty-year period following 1835 records of one<br />
county of Indiana showed fourteen operations for strangulated<br />
hernia, four lithotomies, one ovariotomy (sixty-one<br />
pounds), one ligature of the common carotid, and diagnosis<br />
of four vesico-vaginal fistulas. Between October 28, 1847,<br />
and February 2, 1848, Dr. Daniel Brainard, of the Rush<br />
Medical College of Chicago, performed forty-nine opera-<br />
A Dr. H. A. Russell, who settled on the Kankakee<br />
tions.<br />
River in 1832, made the first capital surgical operation in<br />
that locality when he operated on a two and one-half year<br />
old boy for an inguinal hernia; the child was given "a suit-
118<br />
able dose of opium and a quantity of w<strong>his</strong>ky, and tied to<br />
the table." Dr. James M<strong>ills</strong> Bush, of the Kentucky School<br />
of Medicine, was an expert with the lithotrite (instrument<br />
for breaking or crushing bladder stones), and was said to<br />
have performed two hundred ten litholapaxies (rapid bladder<br />
stone crushing or breaking) with but four deaths. One<br />
of the early Indiana surgeons boasted that he had enough<br />
bone buttons, bored from the skulls of <strong>his</strong> patients in trephining<br />
for fractures, to furnish a full set for a doublebreasted<br />
coat.^^<br />
Physiology as well as surgery had its midwestern <strong>pioneer</strong>.<br />
Perhaps the most famous volley of buckshot ever fired in<br />
the Middle West was the one poured close-range into the<br />
abdomen of the half-breed voyageur, Alexis St. Martin, in<br />
1822 at the trading post at Mackinac. From t<strong>his</strong> accident<br />
grew the noted experimentation of Dr. William Beaumont,<br />
young army post surgeon. Though the doctor announced<br />
when he first dressed the wound, "<strong>The</strong> man cannot live 36<br />
hours; I will come and see him by and by," after some<br />
months of treatment the patient recovered, except for a<br />
fistulous opening to <strong>his</strong> stomach. When the county and<br />
town authorities<br />
refused to continue maintenance of St.<br />
Martin, Dr. Beaumont took him into <strong>his</strong> own home. Little<br />
knowing the use which he was to make of t<strong>his</strong> "Man with<br />
the window in <strong>his</strong> stomach," the doctor tried in vain to<br />
close the fistula; not until early in 1825 did the idea of conducting<br />
experiments on the gastric digestion occur to him.<br />
Years of work, difficulties, delays, and disappointments<br />
finally culminated in the publication eight years later, in<br />
1833, of <strong>his</strong> Experiments and Observations on the Gastric<br />
Juice and the Physiology of Digestion, a work "so complete<br />
and accurate . . . that little material additional knowledge<br />
has been made to the subject in the one hundred years that<br />
have elapsed since. Even the X-ray has added practically<br />
nothing to <strong>his</strong> direct observations."'^^<br />
* a- *<br />
Opportunities for education of <strong>doctors</strong> were limited.
119<br />
Medical schools were not generally available in the West<br />
until late in the 1830's, but their absence did not too seriously<br />
retard the increase in the number of <strong>doctors</strong>, for<br />
entry into the profession was almost as easy as into the law.<br />
A young man lived at the home of some local doctor, "read<br />
medicine" with him, rolled <strong>his</strong> p<strong>ills</strong>, mixed <strong>his</strong> powders, cut<br />
splints, and took care of the horse. After a time he was<br />
allowed to accompany the doctor on visits to <strong>his</strong> cases. At<br />
first he maintained a discreet silence; then, as he grew in<br />
Hippocratean stature, he was permitted to assist in diagnosis<br />
and treatment. <strong>The</strong> long hours of travel were often utilized<br />
by the doctor to hear the lessons of <strong>his</strong> student. A period<br />
varying from two to three years usually sufficed in the<br />
mind of the preceptor to warrant launching the young<br />
doctor on <strong>his</strong> own.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n, even as now, the quality of <strong>his</strong> training was dependent<br />
in large degree upon the abiHty of <strong>his</strong> trainer. Not<br />
every preceptor, naturally, lived up to these requisites which<br />
Dr. Drake considered essential: 1. "It is not necessary that<br />
the preceptor should be a man of genius; but it is indispensable<br />
that he should possess a sound and discriminating<br />
judgment, otherwise he will be a blind guide." 2. Learned,<br />
at least in <strong>his</strong> profession.<br />
3. Devoted to <strong>his</strong> profession, jealous<br />
of its character, and ambitious of its honors. 4. Conscientious<br />
in the performance of <strong>his</strong> duties. 5. A man of<br />
business— punctual, accurate, systematic. 6. A man of<br />
sound morals and chastened habits.^^ <strong>The</strong>re was no standardization<br />
of training, and whereas one preceptor might<br />
be very exacting, another would be careless and slovenly<br />
in the education of <strong>his</strong> medical wards. Granted that it had<br />
its faults, much that is good could be said for the preceptorial<br />
system.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> "living-in" type of apprenticeship was gradually<br />
supplanted by the regular daytime-instruction type. Since<br />
under the latter system board and room were not furnished<br />
and the doctor could not expect much in the way of labor<br />
from <strong>his</strong> apprentice, a regular fee was charged. T<strong>his</strong> was<br />
frequently $100 per year. A rough average of t<strong>his</strong> type of
120<br />
Upon completion of the<br />
apprenticeship was three years.<br />
course the preceptor would issue a certificate. Unless some<br />
form of examination was required by law, t<strong>his</strong> certificate,<br />
when registered, entitled the holder to practise medicine.<br />
If the young physician became a member of a medical<br />
society, he was likely to rate a little higher. At times students<br />
and young <strong>doctors</strong> clubbed together and brought in<br />
an outside lecturer for two or three weeks' instruction.<br />
Men who held the college medical degree were always careful<br />
to display the M.D. on their prescriptions and signs.<br />
the absence of data it is hard to estimate, but it appears that<br />
prior to 1840 approximately three-fourths of the <strong>doctors</strong><br />
in the Middle West received their training by means of the<br />
apprentice system.^"*<br />
As the idea that "book larnin'" was not necessary and<br />
might even be a handicap gave way to the demand for<br />
formal training, the preceptorial system was supplemented,<br />
then gradually replaced, by the medical school. <strong>The</strong>re is no<br />
more interesting chapter in the development of medical<br />
education than that provided by the <strong>his</strong>tory of the medical<br />
colleges in the Middle West. Many of these schools were of<br />
the proprietary type, the product of the personal ambitions<br />
and dreams of one man or a group of men; often<br />
owners, faculty, and trustees were one and the same. T<strong>his</strong><br />
fact, together with jealousies arising from locations, accounts<br />
in large part for the many and bitter conflicts<br />
which arose.<br />
To Transylvania <strong>University</strong> at Lexington, Kentucky,<br />
belongs the dual honor of being the first university and the<br />
first medical college in the West. Until 1837 only the Ohio<br />
Medical College of Cincinnati, which graduated its first<br />
class in 1821, arose to question Transylvania's monopoly<br />
of medical education in the Ohio Valley. <strong>The</strong> rivalry of<br />
the two cities for the distinction of being the "Athens of<br />
the West" in medicine as well as in commerce and general<br />
intellectual leadership gave rise<br />
In<br />
to many heated individual<br />
controversies.<br />
Transylvania <strong>University</strong> was formed in 1798 by the
121<br />
amalgamation of Transylvania Seminary, which had been<br />
chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1780, and<br />
the Kentucky Academy established by the Presbyterians in<br />
1794.^^ <strong>The</strong> Medical Department was instituted in 1799<br />
with Dr. Samuel Brown as Professor of Chemistry, Anatomy,<br />
and Surgery; the first course of medical lectures in<br />
the West was conducted in 1801 after the addition of Dr.<br />
Frederick Ridgely, Professor in Materia Medica, Midwifery,<br />
and the Practice of Physic. Dr. Walter Warfield<br />
was also appointed to the staff but he appears not to have<br />
lectured. A sum of $500 was granted for the purchase of<br />
books and equipment.<br />
Evidently the Trustees felt impelled to act as custodians<br />
of the morals and manners of the students as well as to keep<br />
the institution flourishing, as their record books reveal,<br />
April 12, 1799: <strong>The</strong> Steward "shall keep <strong>his</strong> doors open<br />
until eight o'clock at night, and that after that time <strong>his</strong><br />
doors shall be shut, and it shall be at <strong>his</strong> discretion whether<br />
he open <strong>his</strong> house to those who keep irregular hours, unless<br />
the student is absent by special permit from the teachers."<br />
And April 14, 1810: "Be it ordained that the Professors<br />
be required to exact from the students a more respectful<br />
deportment; that no student shall be permitted to have <strong>his</strong><br />
hat on <strong>his</strong> head in the <strong>University</strong> in the presence of the<br />
Trustees or Professors; that the students, when they leave<br />
the hall or room of recitation be compelled to do it in an<br />
orderly manner, and to make their respects to the presiding<br />
Professors; and when they are reciting at any public examination,<br />
the classes must be compelled to stand up without<br />
leaning on each other." Perhaps the present-day<br />
medical student is not without <strong>his</strong> <strong>his</strong>torical precedent.<br />
In spite of its auspicious beginnings, t<strong>his</strong> medical school<br />
did not prosper until a reorganization had been effected in<br />
1816-17. Its glorious period began with the presidency of<br />
Dr. Horace Holley in 1818. Much of the credit for its<br />
achievement unquestionably was due Dr. Dudley, the wellknown<br />
anatomist and surgeon. "Thundering Jove was not<br />
a greater autocrat than Dudley was in the management of
122<br />
the Transylvania School." <strong>The</strong> rejuvenated medical department<br />
attracted students, and in 1817-18 had an enrollment<br />
of twenty. On the enlarged faculty were Drs. Dudley—<br />
Anatomy and Surgery; James Overton— <strong>The</strong>ory and<br />
Practice of Medicine; Daniel Drake—Materia Medica and<br />
Medical Botany; James Blythe—Chemistry; and William<br />
Richardson— Obstetrics. Such a staff was comparable to,<br />
if not stronger than, the faculty of any of the important<br />
medical schools of the East. T<strong>his</strong> imposing group graduated<br />
one student, John McCullough, of Lexington.<br />
At the end of t<strong>his</strong> first term a part of the intrafaculty<br />
tension which had developed was eased by Dr. Drake's<br />
resignation. It has been said that Drs. Drake and Dudley<br />
"fought before they had well begun, and continued after<br />
they parted."^^ <strong>The</strong> next year (1819) the liberal citizens<br />
of Lexington subscribed over $3,000 to guarantee the salaries<br />
of faculty additions. In 1820 the legislature voted<br />
$5,000 for the purchase of books and apparatus and the city<br />
lent $6,000 for the same purpose. Physicians of the South,<br />
Kentucky, and Lexington made further subscriptions<br />
which brought the total to $13,000. Thus was a financial<br />
foundation securely laid. That the faith of the contributors<br />
in Transylvania's future was justified is indicated by a survey<br />
of enrollment: 1823 two hundred; 1824— two hundred<br />
thirty-four; 1825 — two hundred eighty-one. To<br />
Drake's return in the fall of 1823 might be attributed a part<br />
of t<strong>his</strong> increased enrollment, as he was attaining national<br />
renown as a medical teacher and leader. During Transylvania's<br />
most active period, from 1817 to 1857, 6,456 students<br />
sought instruction and guidance; nearly two thousand<br />
of these were graduated.<br />
<strong>The</strong> session of 1827 promised a faculty of six members,<br />
a new building seventy-five by fifty feet in size with "spacious<br />
lecture rooms, large apartments for library, museum<br />
and chemistry laboratory, librarian's dormitory. Immediately<br />
contiguous to the anatomical theatre and dissecting<br />
rooms." <strong>The</strong>re were "upwards of 3,000 volumes in the<br />
library, being increased by periodicals and standard works,"
123<br />
of which the students might keep out two volumes at a<br />
time. <strong>The</strong> museum boasted preparations of plaster and wax.<br />
All of t<strong>his</strong> was available for $100 specie, with $20 additional<br />
for graduation fee.<br />
From t<strong>his</strong><br />
Transylvania's heyday, however, had waned.<br />
time on to its final session in 1856-57 internal factional<br />
strife and external forces contributed to its decline. By<br />
1836-37 the rise of Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and<br />
other cities as commercial centers, following the development<br />
of steamboat navigation, relegated Lexington to a<br />
minor position in the West. Recognizing the importance<br />
of location on a main thoroughfare, plus the additional<br />
advantage of available anatomical "subjects" ( a "universal<br />
repugnance [is] felt by the entire community against<br />
disinterments," said Dr. L. P. Yandell, of Lexington), several<br />
members of the Medical School faculty, instigated by<br />
Dr. Charles Caldwell, almost succeeded in moving the<br />
school to Louisville. A long and full investigation led, instead,<br />
to the dismissal of Drs. Caldwell, Yandell, and Cooke,<br />
and the dissolution and reorganization of the entire faculty.<br />
<strong>The</strong> resulting instability, when added to the changing external<br />
conditions and the rise of competing schools of<br />
medicine all over the country, made inevitable the decline<br />
of Transylvania. As Dr. Yandell wrote in a personal letter<br />
May 12, 1838: "Dr. Dudley's fame may enable Transylvania<br />
to vie with the Institute [Louisville] for a year or<br />
two; but it cannot withstand everything."^*<br />
But Dudley's personality and the deep-seated intrigue<br />
which seems to have been social, professional, possibly political<br />
and religious, as well as personal, had done their damage.<br />
In 1837 Dr. James C. Cross, who was brought from<br />
the Ohio Medical College, helped secure the services of Dr.<br />
John Eberle for Transylvania, but after Eberle's death in<br />
1838 the whole situation flared up again. Cross was ousted<br />
in 1 844, and there ensued a pamphlet warfare which, aired<br />
as it was in the newspapers, it would have been impossible<br />
for any school to survive. Phrases and epithets such as<br />
"arch traitor," "snarling emissaries of a bastard aristoc-
124<br />
racy," "scoundrel," "seduction and adultery," "character<br />
gangrene," "gross impudent upstart," "hypocrite," "foul<br />
ambition," and "Bacchanalian revelries" flew back and<br />
forth. Professors appealed to their students as well as their<br />
publics; they even quoted poetry at each other. It was not<br />
an edifying spectacle, but on the other hand not an unusual<br />
one.<br />
Transylvania had made a valiant eflfort to overcome these<br />
odds. In 1839 two of the faculty members made a trip<br />
abroad to purchase equipment for their medical department.<br />
Dr. Robert Peter reported the purchase of: "Books<br />
[bringing the total up to eight thousand] and plates, six<br />
thousand dollars; chemical apparatus, two thousand five<br />
hundred dollars; preparations for anatomy and surgery,<br />
one thousand five hundred dollars; models for obstetrics,<br />
five hundred dollars; specimens for materia medica and<br />
therapeutics and drawing, five hundred dollars. A total of<br />
eleven thousand dollars." Apparatus included a new daguerrotype<br />
outfit, which had just been revealed by its<br />
French inventor. Said Dr. Peter, "Transylvania will shine.<br />
No institution in our part of the world will be able to<br />
compare with her in the means of instruction. In fact, I<br />
have seen none in Europe that is more completely prepared<br />
to teach modern medicine." Faculty members, however,<br />
could not be purchased.<br />
In 1850, after the retirement of Dr. Dudley, the winter<br />
session was conducted at the Kentucky School of Medicine,<br />
which had been formed at Louisville by local physicians<br />
and various Transylvania faculty members under the leadership<br />
of Dr. James M<strong>ills</strong> Bush; Lexington retained only a<br />
summer school. <strong>The</strong> winter session was later resumed with<br />
only half-hearted interest. <strong>The</strong> important period of Transylvania's<br />
medical school had ended. In 1856-57 the medical<br />
department ceased to operate and in 1859 was formally<br />
abolished. <strong>The</strong> Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville<br />
continued, however, until in 1908 it united with Louisville's<br />
two other medical schools to form the present <strong>University</strong><br />
of Louisville School of Medicine.
125<br />
Simultaneously with the growth of Transylvania, the<br />
Queen City was witnessing one of the classic struggles in<br />
the <strong>his</strong>tory of medical education, the "Thirty Years' War"<br />
of cantankerous Dr. Drake to make Cincinnati the medical<br />
center of the West. T<strong>his</strong> he intended to do by the creation<br />
of an institution which would attain the standards which<br />
he deemed essential for producing well-trained <strong>doctors</strong>,<br />
"that our profession may be made to keep pace with every<br />
other."<br />
Outstanding among the names of those who participated<br />
prominently in the early medical <strong>his</strong>tory of the West was<br />
that of Dr. Daniel Drake. He has been called a colossal<br />
"a man whose fame, as compared with that of <strong>his</strong><br />
figure,<br />
contemporaries will probably be greater a century hence<br />
than it is today, and whose name even now should be among<br />
the first on the list of the illustrious dead of the medical<br />
profession of the United States."^^ Drake, as did Lincoln<br />
and others, manifested in large degree what he himself<br />
referred to as "the Western Heart." His entire life was a<br />
story of struggle— struggle with the wilderness and early<br />
poverty, with other medical schools and other men in the<br />
same schools, with men in other sections. It was West<br />
against East, West against West, regulars against quacks,<br />
big minds against small, big minds against big, and sometimes<br />
Drake against all. Always there fermented in <strong>his</strong> mind<br />
the exasperating disparity between ideals and reality.<br />
Drake was born in New Jersey in 1785, but when he was<br />
only two and one-half years old <strong>his</strong> parents joined a party<br />
of New Jersey farmers who were seeking new homes in<br />
the western country. His people were poor among the<br />
poorest; when father Isaac Drake arrived in the Kentucky<br />
forests <strong>his</strong> fortune consisted of one dollar, at that time and<br />
place the price of a bushel of corn.<br />
When five families of<br />
the emigrants purchased a tract of fourteen hundred acres<br />
of land to be divided among them according to their respective<br />
payments, the Drakes' share was only thirty-eight<br />
acres.<br />
Young Daniel's early education was received from itin-
126<br />
erant schoolmasters, wandering preachers, the woods and<br />
fields. Removal of the family to an unsettled region near<br />
Mayslick deprived him of even these meager external<br />
human sources of instruction, as for two years he helped<br />
<strong>his</strong> father. At the age of eleven Daniel was able to resume<br />
<strong>his</strong> studies at a regular school in the Mayslick district.^"<br />
In view of <strong>his</strong> extensive contributions to medicine, if<br />
appears as another of those quirks of fate that Drake's medical<br />
education developed as it did. When he was about<br />
twelve or thirteen years old, <strong>his</strong> attention was captured by<br />
the medical books of <strong>his</strong> cousin, John Drake, some six years<br />
<strong>his</strong> senior, who was studying with Dr. William Goforth, of<br />
Washington, Kentucky. Isaac, though pleased with the<br />
prospect of having a doctor in the immediate family,*^ was<br />
able to offer little more than moral support. It was intended<br />
that John Drake should locate in Mayslick and that Daniel<br />
should study under him, but John's premature death spoiled<br />
t<strong>his</strong> plan. Had it been carried out, Daniel might have become<br />
another country doctor in Kentucky, unheard of by<br />
posterity. Making the most of the situation, however, Isaac<br />
arranged to have <strong>his</strong> young son apprenticed to Dr. Goforth,<br />
who had removed to Cincinnati. It was decided that in<br />
return for $400, a considerable sum for the Kentuckian,<br />
Daniel would receive board and instruction for four years.<br />
In 1800, then, young Daniel began <strong>his</strong> training.<br />
"My first assigned duties were to read Quincy's dispensatory<br />
and grind quicksilver into unguentum mercuriale;<br />
the latter of which, from previous practice on a Kentucky<br />
handmill, I found much the easier of the two. But few of<br />
you have seen the genuine, old doctor's shop of the last<br />
century, or regaled your olfactory nerves in the mingled<br />
odors which, like incense to the God of Physic, rose from<br />
brown paper bundles, bottles stopped with worm-eaten<br />
corks, and open jars of ointment, not a whit behind those<br />
of the apothecary in the days of Solomon; yet such a place<br />
is very well for a student. However idle, he will be always<br />
absorbing a little medicine; especially if he sleeps beneath<br />
the greasy counter.<br />
It was my allotted task to commit to
127<br />
memory Chesselden on the bones, and Innes on the muscles,<br />
without specimens of the former or plates of the latter;<br />
and afterwards to meander the currents of the humoral<br />
pathology of Boerhaave and Vansweiten; without having<br />
studied the chemistry of Chaptal, the physiology of Haller<br />
or the materia medica of CuUen."*^<br />
Drake applied himself with industry. Upon the completion<br />
of <strong>his</strong> apprenticeship he became the full-fledged partner<br />
of Dr. Goforth. Though their business increased rapidly,<br />
their cash intake did not add up in like proportion.<br />
In letters to <strong>his</strong> father, Drake spoke of entering from $3<br />
to $6 on their books every day, but expressed doubt of<br />
ever collecting twenty-five per cent of t<strong>his</strong>.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> doctor trusts every one who comes, as usual.<br />
I can<br />
get but a small share in the management of our accounts,<br />
or they would be conducted more to our advantage. I have<br />
not had three dollars in money since I came down, but I<br />
hope it will be different with me after a while. An execution<br />
against the doctor, for the medicine he got three years<br />
since, was issued a few days ago, and must be levied and<br />
returned before the next general court, which commences<br />
the first of September .... I am heartily sick and tired of<br />
living in the midst of so much difficulty and embarrassment;<br />
and almost wish sometimes I had never engaged in<br />
partnership with him, for <strong>his</strong> medicine is so nearly gone<br />
that we can scarcely make out to practice, even by buying<br />
."^'<br />
all we are able to buy . . .<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were, however, compensations.<br />
Dr. Goforth was<br />
a very popular man among the more important people in<br />
town and introduced <strong>his</strong> young student to all—William<br />
H. Harrison, General Gano, the Symmes family, Arthur<br />
St. Clair, Nicholas Longworth. In t<strong>his</strong> way Drake was able<br />
to form many friendships and to awaken and stimulate an<br />
interest in public affairs which he maintained throughout<br />
<strong>his</strong> life.<br />
To Drake is accorded the double distinction of receiving<br />
the first medical diploma conferred west of the Alleghenies<br />
—granted in 1805 by <strong>his</strong> mentor^*—and of being the first
128<br />
product of the West to be graduated from a recognized<br />
medical school. He had attended the <strong>University</strong> of Pennsylvania<br />
from 1805 to 1806, but did not complete <strong>his</strong><br />
course and get <strong>his</strong> degree until 1816. Perhaps no other<br />
among the medical leaders of the West achieved notice in<br />
such a variety of activities. After 1807 Drake maintained<br />
a drug store in which he sold practically everything needed<br />
by the residents of <strong>pioneer</strong> Cincinnati. In it he fitted up<br />
in 1816 the first soda fountain in the West. His interest<br />
in community affairs was almost unlimited. He was one of<br />
the trustees of the Lancaster Seminary, which later became<br />
Cincinnati College; he was instrumental in building the<br />
first Episcopal church in Cincinnati and in starting a library<br />
society, a debating society, a school of literature and art,<br />
and a museum for the study of western antiquities and<br />
natural <strong>his</strong>tory.<br />
"Cincinnati had much to offer, even in the twenties and<br />
thirties, in the way of an intellectual nobility, yet many a<br />
frontier town numbered groups that would have commanded<br />
attention anywhere. . . . Centuries were telescoped<br />
into decennia during t<strong>his</strong> rapid development of<br />
educational and social movements on the frontiers. And<br />
Daniel Drake should be viewed, not only by what he said,<br />
wrote, and built up in that fertile period but also by the<br />
group which he formed around himself— <strong>his</strong> enemies and<br />
<strong>his</strong> friends."<br />
He took an active part in furthering various projects for<br />
canals and railroads. He attained national renown as a<br />
medical teacher and is regarded as the Middle West's most<br />
outstanding contributor to medical journalism. His Notices<br />
of Cincinnati, its Topography, Climate and Diseases, 1810,<br />
and its later revisions, attest <strong>his</strong> accuracy of detail and<br />
analysis.<br />
In 1817, upon the invitation of Dr. Dudley, Drake accepted<br />
a professorship at Transylvania, but after only a<br />
year of lecturing he returned to Cincinnati to plan, in<br />
conjunction with Dr. Coleman Rogers and, later, Rev.<br />
systematic course<br />
Elijah Slack of the Lancaster School, a
129<br />
of instruction for medical students.<br />
Because of a clash of<br />
personalities t<strong>his</strong> partnership was not successful. Not a<br />
few of the disputes were occasioned by Slack, who, though<br />
not a physician but a Presbyterian minister, was well versed<br />
in chemistry. He was an honest, painstaking man, with<br />
character above reproach, but he was also pedantic, deliberate,<br />
and tiresome in <strong>his</strong> lectures. His notorious lack of<br />
humor often gave rise to a number of unintentionally informal<br />
lectures, such as the one in which he was endeavoring<br />
to show before a mixed class the chemical composition<br />
of water. Reaching for the pig's bladder, which in those<br />
pre-rubber days served as a receptacle, he remarked: "I<br />
shall now fill my bladder and proceed to make water." In<br />
spite of such peculiarities, he was a very useful man, nearly<br />
always found with the winning side, which ordinarily<br />
meant that he was opposed to Drake. <strong>The</strong> triumvirate was<br />
dissolved after a short session of four months.<br />
In January of t<strong>his</strong> same year (1819) the Ohio legislature<br />
had authorized the establishment at Cincinnati of <strong>The</strong><br />
Medical College of Ohio, with six chairs. <strong>The</strong> refusal of<br />
Drs. Rogers and Samuel Brown to have anything to do<br />
with the institution caused a delay in the opening of the<br />
school, originally scheduled for the fall of 1819, until<br />
November, 1820. At t<strong>his</strong> time a class of twenty-four assembled<br />
on the second floor of the general store of Isaac Drake<br />
& Co. Of these students seven were graduated the following<br />
April. In the address to the class Dr. Drake pointed out<br />
that "Intestive dissentions and jealousies, resemble the morbid<br />
actions of a fever which produce debility and delirium."<br />
But he was better on a fever than disorders of t<strong>his</strong><br />
type. Faculty strife which had been smouldering soon flared<br />
anew. Eleven months later, in March, 1822, Dr. Drake was<br />
expelled from <strong>his</strong> own school. Public action forced <strong>his</strong><br />
reinstatement, but since <strong>his</strong> position was embarrassing, he<br />
resigned. His school continued in the hands of <strong>his</strong> rivals,<br />
headed by the Rev. Mr. Slack. <strong>The</strong> next few years were<br />
chaotic ones for the Ohio Medical College.<br />
Drake, meanwhile, in 1823 again accepted a professor-
130<br />
ship at Transylvania, where he remained until 1827, when<br />
he returned to Cincinnati to engage in private practice.<br />
Never too contented away from schools, in 1831 he eagerly<br />
accepted a chair at Jefferson in Philadelphia. Even at that<br />
time there must have been hovering in <strong>his</strong> mind a plan<br />
whereby he might once more become associated with medical<br />
teaching in Cincinnati.^^ Before the session was over,<br />
in spite of <strong>his</strong> immense popularity Drake resigned and hurried<br />
back to Ohio, where the trustees of Miami College in<br />
Oxford had announced their intention to open a medical<br />
school in Cincinnati for their college.<br />
Drake was accompanied by a party of distinguished<br />
teachers, which included Drs. John Eberle and Thomas D.<br />
Mitchell, who were to act as professors in the projected<br />
school. <strong>The</strong> Ohio Medical College became alarmed when<br />
the prospectus for the new school was issued in 1831, and<br />
entered into negotiations with Drake. T<strong>his</strong> resulted in the<br />
merging of the two schools, largely on Drake's terms, which<br />
included the dismissal of <strong>his</strong> old enemies, Drs. Slack and<br />
Jesse Smith, and <strong>his</strong> own reinstatement in the Ohio Medical<br />
College. That even t<strong>his</strong> reconstruction did not suit Drake<br />
was evident by <strong>his</strong> resignation at the end of the 1831-32 session<br />
because of conflict with Dr. John Moorhead. During<br />
the remaining years of the first half of the decade, while Dr.<br />
Drake retired to private practice, the affairs of the school<br />
became more and more hopelessly involved; troubles and<br />
wrangles in the faculty and Board of Trustees were a continuous<br />
occurrence. <strong>The</strong> students were at odds with the<br />
faculty, and at one time even memorialized the legislature<br />
against it.<br />
Physicians from Cincinnati and other parts of<br />
Ohio presented to the trustees a petition for remedial action.<br />
Newspapers added their bit by printing attacks on the profession.<br />
<strong>The</strong> legislature, believing the college had become<br />
largely "an arena for local jealousies," refused to help.<br />
When the complete collapse of the school seemed inevitable<br />
in 1835, Drake was called to try to salvage something from<br />
the ruins. He demanded the dismissal of Moorhead, but.
131<br />
notwithstanding the urgency of the situation, so great was<br />
Moorhead's popularity that t<strong>his</strong> demand was refused.<br />
Drake followed <strong>his</strong> earlier plan of fire and backfire; t<strong>his</strong><br />
time he carried out <strong>his</strong> threat and established another<br />
school, the Medical Department of Cincinnati College.<br />
t<strong>his</strong> school it was said, "T<strong>his</strong> marks without a doubt the<br />
highest point ever reached in medical education in the<br />
West."^*' During these years Drake was at <strong>his</strong> peak as a<br />
teacher. As described by one of <strong>his</strong> colleagues, Dr. Samuel<br />
D. Gross,<br />
"He was a great lecturer. His voice was clear and strong,<br />
and he had the power of expression which amounted to<br />
genuine eloquence. When under full sway, every nerve<br />
quivered and he could be heard at a great distance. At such<br />
times <strong>his</strong> whole soul would seem to be on fire.<br />
Of<br />
He would<br />
froth at the mouth, sway to and fro like a tree in a storm,<br />
and raise <strong>his</strong> voice to the highest pitch. With first course<br />
students he was never popular, not because there was anything<br />
disagreeable in <strong>his</strong> manner, but because few of them<br />
had been sufficiently educated to the import of <strong>his</strong> utterances."<br />
<strong>The</strong> distinguished faculty of eight members included<br />
Drs. Gross, Landon C. Rives, Joseph Nash McDowell, and<br />
Willard Parker. Lack of clinical material was a serious<br />
disadvantage, since the Commercial Hospital was completely<br />
controlled by Ohio Medical College, and Drake's Eye<br />
Infirmary and another small institution which he had fitted<br />
up were inadequate. Legislative permission for <strong>his</strong> students<br />
to attend the Commercial clinics was eventually secured,<br />
but it came too late to be of great benefit. Shortage of<br />
funds and faculty resignations gradually stifled the little<br />
school, and it was forced to close its doors in 1839.<br />
During t<strong>his</strong> period, another Kentucky school had started<br />
to offer education for <strong>doctors</strong>-to-be of the West. In 1833,<br />
largely as a result of the efforts of Dr. Alban Gold Smith<br />
(Goldsmith) the Kentucky legislature authorized the establishment<br />
of <strong>The</strong> Medical Institute of the City of Louisville.<br />
Failure to obtain financial backing and difficulties
132<br />
in management, however, delayed the opening of the school.<br />
It was finally organized in 1837 through the aid of some of<br />
the refugees of the Transylvania faculty. <strong>The</strong> mayor and<br />
city council made an outright grant of $30,000 and a city<br />
block to the Institute, and later presented it with $20,000<br />
in cash for a library, apparatus, and an anatomical museum.<br />
True it was, as Dr. L. P. Yandell wrote to a colleague,<br />
"Louisville is the place."<br />
In its first school year, 1837-38, enrollment, representing<br />
fourteen states besides Kentucky, reached eighty, with<br />
twenty additional students in Medical Jurisprudence. <strong>The</strong><br />
twenty-four graduates at the end of the first term included<br />
three from Indiana, two each from Illinois and Tennessee,<br />
and one from Ohio. Despite the general depression throughout<br />
the country the institution prospered. By its third<br />
session it had acquired a clinical amphitheater, the first<br />
west of the Alleghenies. Fifteen thousand dollars of the<br />
library and apparatus fund had been spent abroad. Of the<br />
twenty-four medical schools in the country at that time,<br />
the Institute was surpassed in enrollment only by the <strong>University</strong><br />
of Pennsylvania and Transylvania. <strong>The</strong> faculty at<br />
various times included outstanding leaders of the entire<br />
country: Drs. Drake, Gross, Yandell, Charles Caldwell,<br />
Charles Wilkins Short, John Esten Cooke.<br />
For a decade t<strong>his</strong> school ranked with the leading medical<br />
When on April 23, 1846, the<br />
schools of the United States.<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Louisville was authorized with two departments,<br />
Medicine and Law, the Louisville Medical Institute<br />
became the Medical Department.^^<br />
After the collapse of the Medical Department of the<br />
Cincinnati College, Drake, worn out and thoroughly disgusted,<br />
accepted a professorship at the Louisville Medical<br />
Institute, where he remained from 1840 to 1849, teaching,<br />
practicing, and preparing <strong>his</strong> most important work. <strong>The</strong><br />
Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America^^ T<strong>his</strong><br />
tremendous undertaking had been in <strong>his</strong> mind for years.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first volume appeared in 1850; the second was so nearly<br />
completed at the time of <strong>his</strong> death in 1852 that it was
133<br />
published only two years later. <strong>The</strong> two volumes comprise<br />
slightly fewer than two thousand pages.<br />
Though Drake's Medical Department of the Cincinnati<br />
College was formed primarily for the purpose of exterminating<br />
the Ohio Medical College, its actual effect was<br />
to stimulate in the latter school a reorganization which<br />
proved to be its salvation. Prosperity by the middle forties<br />
had again fanned the old fires of jealousy, and bickerings<br />
boiled up once more. Drake was called from Louisville for<br />
the 1849-50 session, but conditions were so distasteful in<br />
Cincinnati that he stayed for only the one session. He<br />
returned to Louisville, as he wrote in November, 1850,<br />
"the fourth time, in 3 3 years, that I have entered the state<br />
of Ky. as a newly appointed teacher, and I must say that<br />
the present reception is the most comfortable of all."*"<br />
In less than one year subsequent to the beginning of the<br />
session 1849-50 there were twenty-five changes in the faculty<br />
of the Cincinnati school, only nine fewer than the<br />
Medical Department of the <strong>University</strong> of Pennsylvania<br />
had experienced in its sixty years of existence. In 1852<br />
Drake was again asked to come from Louisville to stay<br />
the seemingly inevitable dissolution of the Ohio Medical<br />
College. Home once more, he wrote in <strong>his</strong> last letter to<br />
one of <strong>his</strong> daughters on October 5, 1852:<br />
"Our preliminary October lectures were begun yesterday<br />
at eleven o'clock. <strong>The</strong> Faculty honored me with the<br />
opening address, which was a mighty offhand affair. <strong>The</strong><br />
number of matriculates was 25 ... . We think the prospects<br />
very good. Neither of our rival schools has yet had<br />
a lecture. I know not how many matriculates they have.<br />
I have entered on the care of the medical ward of the Hospital<br />
and must continue in that duty, for five months<br />
"^°<br />
Death in November from arachnitis ended for t<strong>his</strong> old<br />
fighter a life of conflicts, but strife within the school did<br />
not pass with him. Construction of a new building in t<strong>his</strong><br />
year, at a cost of $50,000, apparently paved the way for<br />
a healthier condition, and the competition of rival schools<br />
proved stimulating. <strong>The</strong> school entered upon a period of
134<br />
more stable existence and continued to 1886, when it became<br />
nominally the Medical Department of the <strong>University</strong><br />
of Cincinnati. T<strong>his</strong> arrangement in reality meant nothing,<br />
and not until ten years later was a definite relationship<br />
effected.<br />
Simultaneously various minor medical schools were developing<br />
in Ohio. Willoughby in 1834 established a university<br />
which organized a medical department in the next<br />
year. In 1847 t<strong>his</strong> medical department was transferred to<br />
Columbus and reorganized as the Starling Medical College.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cleveland Medical College (Western Reserve) , founded<br />
in 1843, was flourishing under the capable leadership of Dr.<br />
Jared Potter Kirtland. Dr. Alvah H. Baker's institution<br />
operated after 1851 as the Cincinnati College of Medicine<br />
and Surgery. Its first decade was an interrupted chain of<br />
internal and external troubles, largely attributable to the<br />
selfish and domineering manner of the founder. In 1854<br />
it was the scene of "one of the most fiendish crimes in the<br />
<strong>his</strong>tory of the West," when one Arrison settled a personal<br />
quarrel by the delivery of an infernal machine to a medical<br />
student, Isaac H. Allison, which killed him and <strong>his</strong> wife<br />
and nearly wrecked the building.<br />
<strong>The</strong> warfare among these schools, when added to the<br />
strife occasioned by the introduction of the many irregular<br />
factions and quack representatives, made Ohio, and particularly<br />
Cincinnati, the medical No-Man's Land of the<br />
period.<br />
St. Louis, though older than either Cincinnati or Louisville,<br />
lagged almost a generation behind in the development<br />
of western medical education. In 1840 Dr. Joseph Nash<br />
McDowell, brilliant but eccentric nephew of Dr. Ephraim<br />
McDowell, with a group of St. Louis physicians organized<br />
a medical school under the charter of Kemper College, an<br />
institution maintained by the Protestant Episcopal Church.<br />
McDowell was born at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1803 and<br />
received <strong>his</strong> medical degree from Transylvania in 1825.<br />
After teaching anatomy for a year at Transylvania, he went<br />
to Philadelphia, where for one year he taught anatomy at
135<br />
Jefferson. Returning to the West, he married a sister of<br />
Daniel Drake, and from 1835 to 1839 was Professor of<br />
Anatomy in the Cincinnati Medical College. When the<br />
latter went out of existence in 1839 McDowell moved to<br />
St. Louis and organized the Kemper Medical Department.<br />
In 1845, when Kemper College was finding it difficult<br />
to keep going, the medical school became the Medical Department<br />
of the <strong>University</strong> of Missouri. When, shortly<br />
before the Civil War, the university discontinued its medical<br />
department, McDowell's old school became the Medical<br />
Department of the Missouri Institute of Science.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Medical Department of St. Louis <strong>University</strong>, a Jesuit<br />
school, was established in 1836, but did not begin to function<br />
until 1842, under the leadership of the erudite Dr.<br />
Charles Alexander Pope. He was the son-in-law of Col.<br />
John O'Fallon, who had given $80,000 for the establishment<br />
of the institution. Pope is said to have donated "at<br />
least $30,000 besides." <strong>The</strong> medical department severed its<br />
connection with the university in 1855, when the Know-<br />
Nothing movement was at its height, and received a charter<br />
as the St. Louis Medical College.<br />
For years there existed between "McDowell's College"<br />
and "Pope's College" a rivalry kept alive largely by Dr.<br />
McDowell's peculiarities. His dislikes were as intense as <strong>his</strong><br />
love for anatomy. "Preternaturally cadaverous, he looked<br />
as though he had pared <strong>his</strong> own flesh down so that he might<br />
study <strong>his</strong> own bones." In later years he claimed to have<br />
performed the ovariotomy for which <strong>his</strong> uncle became<br />
famous; <strong>his</strong> surgical skill and anatomical knowledge make<br />
t<strong>his</strong> credible. <strong>The</strong> human body was to him an awful miracle<br />
of nature. His lectures and demonstrations were rich with<br />
stories; students said he had a different one for almost every<br />
muscle, nerve, and bone. "He was an unusually fluent and<br />
eloquent speaker, a natural orator and possessed to a preeminent<br />
degree that rare and wonderful power of adapting<br />
himself to any and all kinds of audiences. He literally<br />
reveled in antithesis and climax, and as a vivid wordpicturer<br />
few could equal him. A perfect master of invective
136<br />
and ridicule, never at a loss to entertain any company he<br />
might be thrown into." T<strong>his</strong> love for story- teUing, when<br />
combined with <strong>his</strong> public eloquence and the bitterness he<br />
bore <strong>his</strong> antagonist, gave rise to sundry interesting episodes.<br />
On one occasion he is reported to have said at a commencement,<br />
"That by the Grace of God and the permission of<br />
the Pope, I expect to lecture here for the next twenty years<br />
to come." At another time:<br />
"McDowell, tall and with bushy gray hair brushed back<br />
on <strong>his</strong> forehead, slowly sauntered down the aisle of the<br />
amphitheatre with a violin and bow in <strong>his</strong> hand. Seeing so<br />
many students sitting sideways, he commandingly said in<br />
<strong>his</strong> penetrating, high-pitched voice: 'Gentlemen, I pray<br />
you, gentlemen, sit straight and face the music' After<br />
scraping off a few tunes he very gravely laid down <strong>his</strong> violin<br />
and bow and said 'Gentlemen, we have now been together<br />
for five long months and we have passed many pleasant<br />
and delightful moments together, and doubtless some sad<br />
and perplexing ones, and now the saddest of all sad words<br />
are to be uttered, namely, "Farewell." We have floated in<br />
an atmosphere of ph3'^siology, we have waded knee-deep,<br />
nay, neck-deep into a sea of theory and practice, we have<br />
wandered into the tortuous maze and confusing labyrinth<br />
of anatomy; we have wearily culled amidst pungent odors<br />
and savored the queer elements of materia medica. We<br />
have patiently plodded in the crucible of chemicals. Yes,<br />
gentlemen, filled with that weariness at times which could<br />
have made us sleep sweetly, or snore profoundly upon a<br />
bed of flint, and now, gentlemen, farewell. Here we have<br />
made the furrow and sowed the seeds. In after years one<br />
of your number will come back to the City of St. Louis,<br />
with the snow of many winters upon <strong>his</strong> hair, walking not<br />
on two legs, but on three, as Sphinx has it, and as he wanders<br />
here and there upon the thoroughfares of t<strong>his</strong> great city,<br />
suddenly, gentlemen, it will occur to him to ask about Dr.<br />
McDowell. <strong>The</strong>n he will hail and ask one of the eager passersby:<br />
"Where is Dr. McDowell" He will say: "What Dr.<br />
McDowell" "Why, Dr. McDowell, the surgeon." He will
137<br />
buried out at<br />
tell him, gentlemen, that Dr. McDowell lies<br />
Bellefontaine. Slowly and painfully he will wend <strong>his</strong> way<br />
thither; there he will find amidst rank weeds and seeding<br />
grass a simple marble slab inscribed, "J. N. McDowell,<br />
Surgeon." As he stands there contemplating the rare virtues<br />
and eccentricities of t<strong>his</strong> old man, suddenly, gentlemen, the<br />
spirit of Dr. McDowell will arise upon ethereal wings and<br />
bless him. Yes, thrice bless him. <strong>The</strong>n it will take a swoop,<br />
and when it passes t<strong>his</strong> building, it will drop a parting tear,<br />
but, gentlemen, when it gets to Pope's College, it will<br />
expectorate.' "^^<br />
His students eagerly entered the battle of the colleges.<br />
<strong>The</strong> main medical hall was designed by McDowell to serve<br />
as a fortress, should occasion demand; <strong>his</strong> residence on the<br />
opposite corner was also planned to resist an assault. At<br />
one time as many as one thousand four hundred discarded<br />
muskets, purchased from the United States Government,<br />
were stored in <strong>his</strong> house and in the college basement. Cannons<br />
which the patriotic professor had installed were used,<br />
much to the annoyance of nearby dwellers, for celebrating<br />
Washington's Birthday and the Fourth of July. Foiled in<br />
<strong>his</strong> ambitions to lead an expedition of students and followers<br />
to the conquest of Upper California, McDowell at last<br />
enlisted the guns in the Southern cause in the 1860's.<br />
Despite these childish activities, the St. Louis schools<br />
managed to provide physicians with training quite comparable<br />
to that furnished by the other schools in existence<br />
at the time.^"<br />
<strong>The</strong> northern Illinois-Chicago area was another center<br />
of medical education. <strong>The</strong> first effort to teach medicine in<br />
Illinois came in 1842 with the organization of the Franklin<br />
Medical College at St. Charles by Dr. George W. Richards.<br />
He was ably supported by a strong faculty which included<br />
Drs. Nichols Hard, John Thomas, John Delamater, Edward<br />
Mead, and Samuel Denton. Of Dr. Delamater it has been<br />
said<br />
that probably no medical man ever taught so many<br />
He was also<br />
subjects in so many different medical schools.<br />
largely responsible for the establishment at Jacksonville,
138<br />
in 1847, of the first state hospital for the insane in Illinois.<br />
Records of t<strong>his</strong> <strong>pioneer</strong> medical school are almost nonexistent.<br />
It is known that the work was carried on in quarters<br />
above a store and in the offices of the teachers; none<br />
of the trustees of the school was a member of the faculty.<br />
It was rumored in the community that the students were<br />
"possessed of hyena proclivities." Following dissection of<br />
the body of a Mrs. Runyon, the fear and hatred of the<br />
"resurrectionist" activities of the students led to an attack<br />
upon the school by enraged citizens. Shots were exchanged,<br />
one student was killed, and Dr. Richards himself was so<br />
seriously injured by a ball through one lung and the brachial<br />
plexus that paralysis of the right arm resulted; <strong>his</strong> death<br />
from a pulmonary infection four years later was traced<br />
to t<strong>his</strong> incident. <strong>The</strong> school was forced to close in 1849.^^<br />
<strong>The</strong> second venture of Illinois in medical education came<br />
in 1843, when a medical school with a faculty of four was<br />
added to the Illinois College, established in 1830 at Jacksonville.<br />
A distinctive feature of t<strong>his</strong> school was its gratuitous<br />
admission of students who planned to become missionaries.<br />
Although it seemingly got off to a good start, the<br />
school passed out of existence in 1848, chiefly because its<br />
leading spirit, Dr. David Prince, was so industrious in procuring<br />
cadavers for <strong>his</strong> anatomy students that t<strong>his</strong> school,<br />
too, engendered community hatred. During its five years of<br />
existence it had more than one hundred students, of whom<br />
forty-three were graduated. ^^<br />
A few weeks after the opening of the Illinois College<br />
Medical School the Rush Medical College of Chicago began<br />
its long life. T<strong>his</strong>, "the first institution of the kind in Illinois<br />
or indeed west of Cincinnati and Lexington," as the<br />
Chicago Americajt of March 25, 1837, proudly announced,<br />
had, as the result of the efforts of Drs. Daniel Brainard and<br />
Josiah Cosmare Goodhue, been chartered by the Illinois<br />
legislature in 1837, at a time when the population of Chicago<br />
was little more than three thousand. Financial conditions<br />
had delayed its opening, although Dr. Brainard had<br />
given instruction to a few students during the intervening
139<br />
years. As Dr. Brainard's widow later wrote: "When the<br />
question of a name for the college was discussed, it was<br />
decided to name it after Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia,<br />
then deceased, in hope of <strong>his</strong> heirs handsomely remembering<br />
it. However, at that time, they received no<br />
more than a letter of thanks."<br />
At the opening of the first session in December, 1843, the<br />
faculty was composed of four members. Requirements for<br />
graduation and fees were similar to those in effect in the<br />
other medical schools of the country: three years of study<br />
with "a respectable physician"; two courses of lectures, of<br />
which one was to be taken at Rush, or two years of practice<br />
instead of one of the lecture courses; "good moral character";<br />
twenty-one years of age; a thesis in the student's<br />
own handwriting; and special examinations in all courses.<br />
For the sixteen weeks' course a ticket cost $60, with an<br />
additional $5 for dissecting and a graduation fee of $20.<br />
Courses were given in two small rented rooms until 1844,<br />
when the college occupied a building of its own.<br />
Rush was quick to adopt new practices. "Laughing Gas"<br />
was administered for surgery in 1847 and chloroform the<br />
following year. It plunged into the struggle over admission<br />
of women to medical schools by permitting Miss Emily<br />
Blackwell to attend one session. By 1846 its library contained<br />
six hundred volumes, a free dispensary was being<br />
operated, and additions had been made to the faculty.<br />
One of these additions. Dr. Nathan S. Davis, who came<br />
to Chicago in 1849, is generally regarded as the most active<br />
founder of the American Medical Association. He was a<br />
strong, aggressive character and advocated the lengthening<br />
and grading of the course of instruction. As a consequence<br />
of dissension with Dr. Brainard over t<strong>his</strong> policy, Davis,<br />
with several other members of the faculty, left Rush ten<br />
years later and established a medical department at Lind<br />
<strong>University</strong>. Lind is credited with being the first school to<br />
use the graded system of medical instruction. When t<strong>his</strong><br />
institution (renamed Lake Forest <strong>University</strong>) folded up,<br />
the medical department set up independently as the Chi-
140<br />
cago Medical College in 1863, and t<strong>his</strong> in turn finally became<br />
the Medical Department of Northwestern <strong>University</strong><br />
in 1869.<br />
<strong>The</strong> dissenters also took away from Rush control of the<br />
clinical service at Mercy Hospital, established in 1850 by<br />
Dr. Davis as the Illinois General Hospital of the Lakes.<br />
Through the skillful management of Dr. Brainard, Rush<br />
successfully surmounted t<strong>his</strong> handicap and, in spite of all<br />
intervening crises, exists today—since 1924 a part of the<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Chicago— a living monument to its founder,<br />
as Dr. Davis prophesied in <strong>his</strong> opening address, "identified<br />
with the interests of a great and prosperous city."^^<br />
<strong>The</strong> fourth and last of the early Illinois medical schools<br />
was the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Upper<br />
Mississippi, organized in 1 848 at Rock Island.<br />
of Madison Medical College, a Wisconsin institution, which<br />
by its charter had been given power to create branches in<br />
locations other than Madison. Though t<strong>his</strong> school began<br />
It was a part<br />
auspiciously with a faculty of seven professors and an additional<br />
demonstrator of anatomy, only one course was given<br />
in Illinois. Twenty-one students were graduated in February,<br />
1849. A new charter was secured in Iowa, and the<br />
school was moved to Davenport in the autumn. It remained<br />
there only one session. In the spring of 1850 it became the<br />
Medical Department of the State <strong>University</strong> of Iowa and<br />
was removed to Keokuk.^®<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>his</strong>tory of early medical education in Wisconsin is<br />
rather sketchy. In 1847 the Wisconsin Medical College was<br />
incorporated, to be located in or near Milwaukee, but little<br />
more is known about it. In 1849 Dr. Alfred L. Castleman,<br />
who had previously been appointed to confer with the<br />
Chancellor of the <strong>University</strong> of Wisconsin on the possibility<br />
of organizing a medical department in the university, reported<br />
unfavorably.<br />
Because of the meagerness of clinical<br />
facilities it was not considered advisable even during the<br />
latter half of the century to start a complete medical college<br />
in Madison. In 1850 physicians attempted to organize a<br />
medical college under the charter of the state university.
141<br />
Dr. Erastus B. Wolcott, surgeon, was elected president but<br />
no further progress was made. A similar lack of success<br />
followed a renewed attempt in 1868*. In 1864 the La-<br />
Crosse Medical College was founded at LaCrosse, but it<br />
seems to have had a very short existence. ^^<br />
Such formal education as was obtained by early <strong>doctors</strong><br />
in Indiana came from schools outside the state. Although<br />
Isaac Reed, preacher and traveller, wrote in 1817, "I believe<br />
there are more men of public education in the professions<br />
of law and medicine, than would be expected<br />
abroad, in the State so young,"^^ a widely acquainted Indiana<br />
doctor stated that as late as 1825 not ten per cent of<br />
the physicians were graduates of medical colleges and not<br />
over twenty-five or thirty per cent had ever attended one<br />
course of lectures. <strong>The</strong> need for medical education was<br />
recognized as early as 1806, when the legislature of Indiana<br />
Territory issued a charter for Vincennes <strong>University</strong> which<br />
authorized it to set up a medical department as well as<br />
departments of law and theology, but thirty years elapsed<br />
before the medical department was organized.<br />
Not until March 5, 1833, did an Indiana school issue a<br />
medical diploma, if it can be counted as such, since the<br />
"Christian College" at New Albany, which had been incorporated<br />
by the General Assembly only forty days previously,<br />
granted t<strong>his</strong> degree under the assumed name of<br />
the "<strong>University</strong> of Indiana." Nor did its questionable activities<br />
stop there. Under John Cook Bennett, its first president<br />
or chancellor, t<strong>his</strong> diploma-mill began dispensing degrees<br />
to the highest bidders, a practice which it continued<br />
for a number of years, although the institution actually<br />
never did go into legitimate operation. Bennett soon left t<strong>his</strong><br />
school to establish Willoughby Medical College in Ohio,<br />
where he remained but a short time before becoming<br />
associated with the Mormons.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Medical Department of Vincennes <strong>University</strong> was<br />
finally organized and announced its first session in September,<br />
1837. Since the records of the <strong>University</strong> for<br />
t<strong>his</strong> year are missing, very little is known of t<strong>his</strong> venture
142<br />
in medical education. According to the contemporary<br />
newspapers the lectures "commenced" and were "well attended."<br />
Financial difficulties which beset the <strong>University</strong><br />
at the time make it highly probable that t<strong>his</strong> initial session<br />
of the medical school was also its final one.<br />
In 1838 it was "Enacted by the General Assembly of the<br />
State of Indiana, That there shall be and hereby is created<br />
and established a university adjacent to the town of Bloomington,<br />
in the county of Monroe, for the education of youth<br />
in the American, learned and foreign languages, the useful<br />
arts, sciences (including law and medicine), and literature."<br />
<strong>The</strong> operation of the medical department in t<strong>his</strong><br />
school did not become effective, however, until many years<br />
later.<br />
Actual medical-college education in Indiana was begun<br />
in the winter of 1 840-41, when a charter was obtained from<br />
the legislature through the exertions of John H. Bradley,<br />
member from LaPorte, for "a school of high rank, to<br />
be called the LaPorte <strong>University</strong>." T<strong>his</strong> charter, drawn by<br />
William Andrews, provided for an institution that should<br />
have a Hterary, a medical, and a law department. <strong>The</strong><br />
medical department, organized in 1842, had a faculty of<br />
five, which included Dr. Daniel ("Old Death") Meeker, to<br />
whom it owed its existence. <strong>The</strong> school progressed with a<br />
fair degree of success. Its enrollment for the spring terms<br />
1845-46, 1846-47, and 1847-48 was sixty, ninety, and one<br />
hundred one, respectively. <strong>The</strong> spring course of 1848 was<br />
given at Lafayette, at the insistence of Dr. Deming, in the<br />
hope of the eventual removal of the school to that place.<br />
Thirty students were graduated in 1849. During the eight<br />
years of the school's existence it enrolled a total of five<br />
hundred sixty-five students, of whom one hundred twentyseven<br />
were graduated.<br />
Apparently prospective students were not too much impressed<br />
by the promises of Professor Moses L. Knapp in <strong>his</strong><br />
commencement address of 1847:<br />
"If you are adapted to the people, and the place is growing<br />
rapidly— requisities I have insisted on—and you pur-
143<br />
sue the course I have marked out, and will certainly go into<br />
practice, you will possibly have as much professional business<br />
as you can do the first summer. One of the first graduates<br />
of t<strong>his</strong> school after its reorganization in 1843 obtained<br />
practice to the amount of nearly $3,000 the first summer<br />
and autumn, settling himself in a country village, in<br />
Illinois, where there were four <strong>doctors</strong>. T<strong>his</strong> is worthy of<br />
being mentioned alongside of the far famed success of the<br />
celebrated Dr. Lettsom, who amassed nearly $8,000 in the<br />
first five months of <strong>his</strong> practice, on <strong>his</strong> return from England<br />
to Tortulo."<br />
Changes of 1848, including the incorporation of the<br />
name "Indiana Medical College," did little to improve the<br />
fortunes of the school. Growth of other medical centers<br />
all around — Chicago, Ann Arbor, Indianapolis, Lafayette<br />
— furnished too much competition for the little college.<br />
In 1851 it was consolidated with the Indiana Central Medical<br />
College of Indianapolis, the medical department of<br />
Asbury <strong>University</strong> of Greencastle.<br />
Indiana Central had opened its first session in the autumn<br />
of 1849. In 1850 it graduated ten students from an enroll-<br />
Even the combination with the LaPorte<br />
ment of forty.<br />
institution did not materially increase its numbers, nor did<br />
early conflict with the Botanies help its progress. Disagreement<br />
among the faculty and trustees caused its dissolution<br />
at the end of the 1851-52 session. Two of its most<br />
notable faculty members were Drs. John S. Bobbs and<br />
Livingston Dunlap.<br />
One other Indiana medical school appeared within the<br />
period— the Medical College of Evansville, which was<br />
organized in March, 1846, but did not open its first course<br />
of lectures until nearly four years later, in November,<br />
1849. From the forty-one matriculants, nine were candidates<br />
for graduation the first commencement. After five<br />
commencements the school suspended operations in 1856<br />
and did not reopen until 1871. During its turbid existence<br />
frequent faculty changes were the rule. Moreover, the<br />
fact that the school was a product of the religious fervor
144<br />
and temperance agitation of the time did not add to its<br />
strength.<br />
"Classes were opened with prayer and lessons in anatomy<br />
made more interesting by the interjection of an occasional<br />
Bible-reading. Students who promised not to use liquor,<br />
tobacco and profane language were admitted without having<br />
to pay any tuition. <strong>The</strong> average medical student found<br />
these requirements too exacting. Thus the school soon<br />
closed its doors. "^'^<br />
In 1817 the Governor and Judges of Michigan Territory<br />
authorized the incorporation of the "Catholepistemiad or<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Michigania." One of the thirteen Didaxiim<br />
or professorships was the Didaxia of latrica or Medical<br />
Sciences. It was 1837 before t<strong>his</strong> grandiose paper university<br />
was translated into a school. <strong>The</strong> Michigan medical profession<br />
was exceedingly fortunate in having one of its<br />
members,<br />
Dr. Zana Pitcher, on the <strong>University</strong> Board of Regents.<br />
In 1847 he was appointed chairman of the committee to<br />
consider the establishment of a medical school. <strong>The</strong> medical<br />
school as established "was essentially the work of <strong>his</strong> hands,"<br />
for only minor changes were made in <strong>his</strong> recommendations<br />
of 1848 and 1849.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next year, 1850, the school was inaugurated at Ann<br />
Arbor with a faculty of five members. Its growth was<br />
hampered during the early years by a lack of clinical facilities.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> condition was not remedied until over a quarter<br />
of a century later, when, in 1877, a one-hundred-fifty-bed<br />
hospital was provided. During t<strong>his</strong> period patients were<br />
brought to the school by physicians of the state for free<br />
consultation, provided they submitted to demonstration<br />
before the medical students. <strong>The</strong> early years of the medical<br />
department were filled with conflicts with the homeopaths.<br />
Michigan was one of the first schools in the United States<br />
to require high qualifications for entrance and longer<br />
courses.<br />
<strong>The</strong> development of hospitals in the West paralleled the<br />
rise of medical schools; the two were interdependent.<br />
Founders of medical schools early recognized the inabihty
145<br />
of their institutions to function properly without cHnical<br />
facihties. Often it became necessary either to open hospitals<br />
or to close schools. Sometimes the problem was solved the<br />
one way, sometimes the other. Nevertheless, beginnings<br />
were made. <strong>The</strong> contrast between the early hospitals and<br />
those of today would probably be more striking than between<br />
the medical schools of the two periods.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>pioneer</strong>'s pride and independence which sometimes<br />
made him skeptical of college <strong>doctors</strong> operated doubly<br />
strong against hospitals. <strong>The</strong> idea prevailed that these newfangled<br />
affairs were essentially charity asylums, in the same<br />
category with poorhouses, pesthouses, and insane asylums.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> was a natural assumption, since the earliest hospitals<br />
often combined these social services. Furthermore, there<br />
was the black record of deaths under which the early hospitals<br />
labored. In these pre-Listerian days post-operation<br />
infections were the rule rather than the exception, and<br />
even if the patient miraculously escaped death he would<br />
often, as a result of the surgeon's ignorance of asepsis and<br />
antisepsis, spend the remainder of <strong>his</strong> life minus arm or leg.<br />
Even after Lister had proved Pasteur's thesis, years were<br />
required for <strong>doctors</strong> as well as patients to accept it. <strong>The</strong><br />
appearance of "laudable pus" or "God's salve" was regarded<br />
by the surgeon as an indication that the healing mechanism<br />
of the body had been set in motion and, God willing, the<br />
patient would recover. Too frequently <strong>doctors</strong> sent their<br />
cases to the hospital as the last resort, and patients felt that<br />
they were committed there to die rather than to live.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first hospital in Cincinnati was opened about 1815<br />
when the township trustees rented a house for the accommodation<br />
of sick and indigent persons. <strong>The</strong> building was<br />
ill-adapted to its purpose, and the institution passed out<br />
of existence in 1821 when the "Commercial Hospital and<br />
Lunatic Asylum of the State of Ohio," advocated by Dr.<br />
Drake as a part of <strong>his</strong> educational system, was chartered<br />
by the legislature. <strong>The</strong> state was to pay a small sum toward<br />
the support of patients, the township to supply the remainder,<br />
and the professors of the Ohio Medical College
146<br />
were to be its medical and surgical attendants, with the<br />
privilege of introducing their students for clinical instruction.<br />
<strong>The</strong> fees of admission were to constitute a fund for<br />
the purchase of chemical and anatomical apparatus, and<br />
books for the college. By contract with the Secretary of<br />
the Treasury the hospital became also the Marine Hospital<br />
of the United States.<br />
Some delay attended the erection of a building, but one<br />
was completed in 1823. Tlie hospital became enmeshed in<br />
the troubles of the college, particularly after the rise of<br />
rival schools which demanded a share in the clinical advantages<br />
of the hospital. In 1839 the legislature passed a law<br />
which extended its use to the students of all medical colleges.<br />
In 1853 the hospital fight became a public scandal<br />
when brought to the fore by the Eclectics, rival schools,<br />
and even the Methodists who were disgruntled by the failure<br />
of Wesleyan <strong>University</strong> to create a medical department<br />
in 1850. <strong>The</strong> trustees of the hospital, torn between conflicting<br />
forces, finally admitted students of the Eclectic<br />
Institute to clinical demonstrations. <strong>The</strong> result was almost<br />
daily fights between the two sects, and for nearly a year<br />
the clinical lectures had to be suspended. In 1855 the trustees<br />
were empowered to sell tickets to students of all colleges,<br />
a procedure which seemed to restore temporary peace.<br />
<strong>The</strong> absorption of the Miami Medical College by the Ohio<br />
Medical in 1858 also helped to ease the situation somewhat.<br />
Drake's "Cincinnati Eye Infirmary," which he had opened<br />
in 1 827, in later years provided in a very meager and inadequate<br />
manner clinical material for <strong>his</strong> Medical Department<br />
of Cincinnati College.<br />
In 1852 the City Infirmary was established. Orphan<br />
asylums which had been set up in different parts of the state<br />
relieved the hospital from the responsibility of caring for<br />
parentless children; the Lick Run, and later the Carthage<br />
(Longview), lunatic asylums likewise limited the functions<br />
of the old Commercial Hospital. Control in the late 1850's<br />
and early 1860's passed to the hands of specialized boards.<br />
In 1865 the crowded condition of the hospital was relieved
147<br />
by the establishment of a temporary annex, and, although<br />
it was hard to convince the people of the necessity for a<br />
new building, one was finally constructed.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first orphan asylum in Cincinnati was established in<br />
1829 by the Sisters of Charity. In 1852 they opened their<br />
"Hotel for Invalids" in the house in which Dr. Taliaferro<br />
and others had conducted a private hospital for about ten<br />
years. T<strong>his</strong> "St. John's Hotel for Invalids" had as a medical<br />
staff professors of the newly organized Miami Medical College.<br />
Concurrently with the opening of the hospital the Sisters<br />
opened two orphans' homes.<br />
In 1858 another hospital, St.<br />
Mary's, was established in<br />
Cincinnati by the "Sisters of the Poor of St. Frances" in the<br />
building which had housed an orphanage conducted by a<br />
German Catholic society. <strong>The</strong> Sisters also opened St. Elizabeth's<br />
Hospital in Covington, Kentucky, within two years;<br />
another in Columbus, Ohio, in 1862; and yet another in<br />
Quincy, Illinois, in 1866.<br />
Following the outbreak of the cholera epidemic in Detroit,<br />
in 1834 a temporary hospital was set up in the building<br />
that Bishop Rese had purchased to remodel for Catholic<br />
use. <strong>The</strong> first permanent hospital in Detroit, St. Vincent's,<br />
was established by the Sisters of Charity in 1845; five years<br />
later it became St. Mary's. Detroit, too, was beginning to<br />
recognize the need of special treatment for its mental cases,<br />
although as late as 1845 well, sick, and insane had been interned<br />
together, and cases of idiots chained in horse stalls<br />
were reported.<br />
At Indianapolis, Drs. John S. Bobbs and Livingston<br />
Dunlap, with a number of citizens, in 1845 memorialized<br />
the City Council for a hospital. T<strong>his</strong> was ordered erected in<br />
January of the following year. A smallpox epidemic broke<br />
out at t<strong>his</strong> time and the plans temporarily disappeared with<br />
it. Four years later the building was completed but not<br />
furnished, nor were provisions made to maintain it. In<br />
1860 it was granted to a society of ladies for use as a home<br />
for friendless women. During the Civil War it was employed<br />
as a military hospital.
148<br />
Chicago had a number of hospitals and related institutions.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first hospital arose from the desire of Dr. Nathan<br />
S. Davis for clinical material for <strong>his</strong> students at Rush<br />
Medical College. Rooms were rented in "<strong>The</strong> Lake House";<br />
in 1850 the institution became the "Illinois General Hospital<br />
of the Lakes." <strong>The</strong> next year nursing was placed in<br />
the hands of the Sisters of Mercy, who obtained a charter<br />
for the "Mercy Hospital." When Dr. Davis and <strong>his</strong> associates<br />
left Rush in 1859, they entered into a contract with<br />
the Sisters to attend patients free of charge in return for<br />
the right to give clinical instruction in the hospital. In<br />
1869 a new building was constructed and Mercy was considered<br />
the "finest hospital west of New York."<br />
<strong>The</strong> U. S. Marine Hospital No. 5 was established in 1852<br />
on part of the Ft. Dearborn reservation. In 1867 a new<br />
one was constructed midway between Chicago and Evanston.<br />
It was destroyed in the Chicago fire, but was rebuilt<br />
on the same site. It was originally intended for sailors in<br />
the Merchant Marine.<br />
In 1855 a poorhouse was instituted on the Cook County<br />
Farm at Jefferson, about twelve miles from Chicago. <strong>The</strong><br />
insane were lodged in a small brick building adjacent to it.<br />
Admirable as was the idea, contemporary descriptions speak<br />
of vermin-infested cells seven by eight feet heated only by<br />
stoves in the corridor, of food passed in through apertures,<br />
and of meager bathing facilities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first city hospital was constructed in 1854, especially<br />
for cholera patients. Because of conflict with the<br />
homeopaths the new building was not occupied until 1859.<br />
Rush physicians at that time leased the hospital from the<br />
city and contracted to care for the sick poor at $3 per week<br />
for each patient. In 1862 the United State Government<br />
took it over for military purposes and converted it into<br />
an army hospital, known until 1865 as "Des Marres General<br />
Hospital"; it was used for soldiers suffering from eye and<br />
ear troubles. It became the Cook County Hospital.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Isolation Hospital of Chicago was established in<br />
1856 as a smallpox hospital for twelve patients in what is
149<br />
now Lincoln Park. It was enlarged in 1865, destroyed in<br />
the 1871 fire, rebuilt, then destroyed by fire again.<br />
Other Chicago institutions established later included:<br />
the Chicago Eye and Ear Infirmary, founded by Dr.<br />
Edward L. Holmes and others in 1858, which had received<br />
its first applicant before a single room had been cleared and<br />
furnished, and accommodated one hundred fifteen patients<br />
during its first year; St. Luke's, 1864; Hospital for Women<br />
and Children, founded by Dr. Mary Harris in 1865;<br />
Alexian Brothers, 1866; Deaconess, 1868; and St. Joseph's,<br />
1868, known at first as Providence, and established by the<br />
Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. It later affiliated<br />
with Rush Medical College.<br />
Wisconsin's first hospital of which we have record was<br />
St. John's Infirmary, which was opened in Milwaukee,<br />
1848, by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. <strong>The</strong><br />
Milwaukee Hospital was founded in 1863 chiefly through<br />
the efforts of the Rev. William Paussauant with the aid of<br />
other Lutheran pastors and laymen, and the Deaconness<br />
Institution.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first hospital in Missouri was established in St. Louis<br />
in 1828 by the Sisters of Charity. Until 1832 they carried<br />
on in a log house with two rooms and a kitchen, but a new<br />
building was erected just in time to care for some of the<br />
cholera victims of that year. In 1843 the hospital was<br />
incorporated as the St. Louis Hospital Association. A big<br />
"St. Louis Hospital Lottery" was widely advertised in the<br />
spring of 1833. Over three thousand tickets were offered<br />
and $10,000 in prizes announced. Chances were supposed<br />
to be much better than in the Mammoth New York Lottery.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Illinois Advocate and State Register later said,<br />
"<strong>The</strong> first day's drawing of t<strong>his</strong> humbug took place . . .<br />
tickets to the amount of $12,000 drew in prizes less<br />
than<br />
$1,500."<br />
<strong>The</strong> first city hospital in St. Louis was opened for patients<br />
in 1846 and was totally destroyed by fire ten years<br />
later. <strong>The</strong> new hospital, which was ready for occupancy
150<br />
by the following year, likewise suffered a violent end in<br />
destruction by tornado in 1896.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Louisville Hospital, chartered in 1817, opened in<br />
1823 to "those engaged in navigating the Ohio and Mississippi<br />
rivers [who] owing to the fatigue and exposure incident<br />
to long voyages become sick and languish at the town<br />
of Louisville where the commerce in which they are engaged<br />
sustains a pause occasioned by the falls of the Ohio<br />
River." In 1826 it was transferred from the state of Kentucky<br />
to the city of Louisville; the Federal Government<br />
provided $500 annually for its support. In 1836 another<br />
act passed for the promotion of the hospital provided:<br />
"That the trustees of the Louisville Marine Hospital may<br />
confide the medical department of said hospital to the<br />
Institute, and the Mayor and Council of the City of Louisville<br />
may confide the medical department of the poor house<br />
and hospital to said Institute"; the name of the institution<br />
was changed to the Louisville City Hospital. T<strong>his</strong> same<br />
year the St. Vincent Infirmary opened; in 1853 it was<br />
moved from the Orphanage to a new location and its name<br />
changed to St. Joseph's Infirmary. About 1836 Lexington<br />
established a City Hospital and Work-House. <strong>The</strong> Federal<br />
Government in 1847 set up in Louisville a Marine Hospital.<br />
Various special institutions were opened in Kentucky to<br />
care for the blind and the insane.<br />
Whether the doctor received <strong>his</strong> early training at the<br />
hands of a preceptor or in a medical school, he still had a<br />
long way to go before he could be considered proficient<br />
in <strong>his</strong> profession. <strong>The</strong> few elementary textbooks used in<br />
college would soon become partially obsolete and an up-todate<br />
library was expensive and difficult to get. Dr. Gideon<br />
Case, who died in 1822 in Hudson, Ohio, had books valued<br />
at $32.25 listed in <strong>his</strong> estate. Some <strong>doctors</strong> had Bell's Surgery,<br />
Cheselden or Wistar's Anatomy, Boerhaave's Lectures,<br />
Van Swieten's Commentaries, Cullen's Materia Medica and<br />
Practice, Quinsey's Dispensatory, Rush or Senac's Fevers,
151<br />
Hamilton or Smellie on Obstetrics, and John Hunter's<br />
Bloody Inflammation and Gun Shot Wounds. By the late<br />
1820's a western doctor could reasonably expect to find a<br />
number of these books, either in stock or on order, in the<br />
bookstores of Cincinnati. Fifteen years later similar stores<br />
were available in Louisville and St. Louis. Most of the<br />
American books came from Philadelphia publishers and<br />
dealers, although Boston, New York, and Baltimore shared<br />
in the trade. <strong>The</strong> European center from which most of<br />
the importers got books was Edinburgh.<br />
Doctors of the West were making their own contributions<br />
to medical literature in the prewar period. Three of<br />
the most outstanding were Drs. Gross, Eberle, and Drake.<br />
In Philadelphia in 1 839 appeared Gross's Elements of Pathological<br />
Anatomy, regarded as the first attempt to present<br />
the subject systematically and coherently in English. For<br />
more than a quarter of a century t<strong>his</strong> was the standard<br />
authority. Gross's work, A Practical Treatise of Foreign<br />
Bodies in the Air Passage, Philadelphia, 1854, was likewise<br />
regarded as a <strong>pioneer</strong> in t<strong>his</strong> field. In 1859, also at Philadelphia,<br />
Gross published <strong>his</strong> two-volume A System of Surgery;<br />
Pathological, Diagnostic, <strong>The</strong>rapeutique, and Operative.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> treatise, the first comprehensive work on the subject,<br />
ran through six editions and was translated into several foreign<br />
languages. It has been judged "the greatest work on<br />
surgery of its day, and probably one of the greatest ever<br />
written." Its sixth edition, published in 1882, contained<br />
twenty-three hundred pages with sixteen hundred illustrations.<br />
"Possibly no book ever written had a greater influence<br />
on surgical thought." <strong>The</strong> last important work of Dr.<br />
Gross was <strong>his</strong> Autobiography, Philadelphia, 1887, which is<br />
one of the finest of its kind written by a first-rank physician<br />
of the Middle West.<br />
Eberle's A Treatise on the Practice of Medicine appeared<br />
as a two-volume work in Philadelphia in 1830. T<strong>his</strong> study,<br />
"comprehensive and original, not a mere compilation of<br />
previous or foreign works," passed through five editions and<br />
was adopted as a textbook by numerous colleges. For the
152<br />
special use of students he published in Cincinnati in 1834<br />
a synopsis of <strong>his</strong> lectures, Notes of Lectures on the <strong>The</strong>ory<br />
and Practice of Medicine, delivered in the Jefferson Medical<br />
College, at Philadelphia. A third edition appeared in Philadelphia<br />
in 1840.<br />
In 1850 Dr. Drake published the first volume of <strong>his</strong><br />
A Systematic, Historical, Etiological and Practical Treatise,<br />
on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Yalley of North<br />
America as <strong>The</strong>y Appear in the Caucasian, African, Indian,<br />
and Esquimaux Varieties of Its Population. Drake's work<br />
was, as he said, "an attempt to present an account— etiological,<br />
symptomatical, and therapeutic— of the most important<br />
diseases of a particular portion of the earth. ."<br />
. .<br />
To present such a complete account it was necessary for the<br />
causative physical factors of diseases to be studied— the<br />
character of soil, climate, temperature, and food in various<br />
regions. Likewise habits of the people had to be examined,<br />
and finally the prevailing diseases and treatments had to<br />
be investigated.<br />
As early as 1822 Drake had sent out an appeal to physicians<br />
of the Middle West and South requesting information<br />
on geographic and medical conditions peculiar to their particular<br />
locality. Questions such as were sent by a committee<br />
(Drs. Samuel Brown, Richardson, and Drake) to "Physicians<br />
of the Western and Southern States and especially to<br />
those of Kentucky" serve as a sample of Drake's early<br />
method of coverage:<br />
"1. At what time did the late epidemic commence and<br />
terminate Was it preceded or succeeded by any unusual<br />
forms of disease Did it appear to spare any particular<br />
class of persons, or those of a certain age, or sex, more than<br />
another<br />
"2. What were its characteristic symptoms — Did they<br />
vary in the progress of the epidemic Did they in any instance<br />
manifest identity with those of the Yellou/ Fever<br />
of our maritime Cities of the West Indies<br />
What were the<br />
morbid appearances upon the dissection of those who died<br />
"3. What was the most successful plan of cure Was
lood-letting useful<br />
153<br />
What method of treatment appeared<br />
to be prejudicial<br />
"4. In what situation was the disease most prevalent<br />
Did it chiefly prevail in the country, and the smaller town<br />
Was it more common and violent in dry and elevated situations<br />
than in the neighborhood of rivers Did topographical<br />
circumstances vary its type, and the indications of<br />
cure<br />
Finally, was there anything in the condition of the<br />
season which can throw light on the origin of the disease<br />
or account for its extensive prevalence "'^^<br />
Innumerable duties delayed for many years the beginning<br />
of actual observations, but by 1837 Drake was making<br />
shorter trips for personal information-gathering. On horseback<br />
and foot, by buggy, boat, and railway he covered the<br />
whole western country, studying the earth and its waters,<br />
the sky and air, plants, animals, and people. As <strong>his</strong> technique<br />
was developed, the investigations were extended. During<br />
these years he was credited with travelling "at least thirty<br />
thousand miles" and examining "thoroughly a zone of<br />
country comprising four millions of square miles . .<br />
.";<br />
"from Hudson Bay to the desert lands of the Rio Grande,<br />
from the palm groves of Florida to the headwaters of the<br />
Mississippi, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the<br />
great lakes of the North, to the prairies of the far West and<br />
to the Sierras of the Rocky Mountains."<br />
<strong>The</strong> first volume, which was published at Cincinnati in<br />
1850, concerned itself with General Etiology and was divided<br />
into three parts : Topography and Hydrography, Climatic<br />
Etiology, and Physiological and Social Etiology. <strong>The</strong><br />
second volume, published posthumously at Philadelphia in<br />
1854, treated of Febrile Diseases: Autumnal Fever, Yellow<br />
Fever, Typhous Fevers, Eruptive Fevers, and Phlogistic<br />
Fevers— the Phlegmasiae.<br />
<strong>The</strong> reception of the work by the profession both here<br />
and abroad was gratifying. At the Cincinnati meeting of<br />
the American Medical Association in 1850 the chairman<br />
of the committee on medical literature devoted the greater<br />
part of <strong>his</strong> report to it, and referred to it as an "achieve-
154<br />
ment of which every doctor in America should be proud."<br />
<strong>The</strong>n followed a demonstration and ovation such as few<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> have received in the annals of American medicine.<br />
When the author was called upon, he was overcome, faint,<br />
and speechless. When he recovered, he said, "I have not<br />
lived in vain," but wished that departed loved ones could<br />
have been there to share the acclaim.<br />
Alexander von Humboldt pronounced Diseases of the<br />
Interior Valley "a treasure among scientific works" and<br />
Benjamin Silliman of Yale classified it as "an enduring monument<br />
of American genius." <strong>The</strong> Edinburgh Review gave<br />
it favorable notice and the British and Foreign Medico-<br />
Chirurgical Review devoted thirty pages to it. Later critics,<br />
evaluating American medical books, stated that, though it<br />
was not possible to make a great list, one could make a<br />
strong one, and on that list Drake's work was among the<br />
strongest.<br />
Since books were often unavailable, medical journals<br />
were the best means by which the doctor could increase <strong>his</strong><br />
knowledge and keep abreast of the developments in the field<br />
of medicine. Indispensable as were these professional periodicals,<br />
with the possible exception of the minority of general<br />
practitioners in the West who had emigrated from<br />
eastern cities,<br />
few physicians were subscribers.^^<br />
True, as with agricultural knowledge, a certain amount<br />
of medical literature was printed in the newspapers. In a<br />
period in which the newspaper was made up largely from<br />
copy lifted bodily from "exchanges," articles from periodicals,<br />
British and American, were common property. In<br />
addition to the usual hints on health, recipes, and the like,<br />
newspapers ran contributions, often of a column or more<br />
in length, by local <strong>doctors</strong>. Sometimes these were continued<br />
through several issues. For instance, in 1821 the Cincinnati<br />
Liberty Hall published a long series by "Hippocrates";<br />
number seventeen was on "Emetics," number eighteen on<br />
"Blood Letting." Others treated of seasonal fevers, epidemics,<br />
and wounds. As interest in t<strong>his</strong> sort of thing increased,<br />
leading <strong>doctors</strong> became aware of the need for
155<br />
periodicals devoted entirely to the subject of medicine.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first American medical journal, the Medical Repository,<br />
began as a quarterly in New York in 1797 under the<br />
editorship of three physicians, Samuel Latham Mitchill,<br />
Professor of Chemistry at Columbia, Elihu Hubbard Smith,<br />
one of the "Hartford wits," and Edward Miller. As stated<br />
in Smith's "Introductory Address," special attention was<br />
to be given to the study of epidemics, connection between<br />
climate and health, and diet. As the work progressed, other<br />
fields of science including agriculture, geography, and natural<br />
<strong>his</strong>tory were given space. It was continued, rather<br />
spasmodically at times, until 1824. T<strong>his</strong> publication did<br />
not have an extensive circulation in the Middle West; in its<br />
second year its total circulation was under three hundred.®^<br />
Other eastern periodicals of varying duration centered<br />
in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore.®'^<br />
these journals western <strong>doctors</strong> favored the Philadelphia and<br />
New York publications. How many were regular subscribers<br />
there is no way of knowing, but likely a small number.<br />
Not infrequently the subscriber had the issues bound into<br />
volumes for reference use.<br />
In the West Cincinnati competed with Lexington and<br />
Louisville for first place in publication of medical journals.<br />
Chicago, St. Louis, Columbus, and Detroit were minor publishing<br />
centers in the pre-Civil War period. Western medical<br />
journalism had its beginning in 1818-19, when Dr.<br />
Drake issued proposals for a medical journal in Cincinnati,<br />
and obtained between two and three hundred subscribers.<br />
Other duties at t<strong>his</strong> time interfered with the project, and<br />
it was not until 1822, when Dr. John D. Godman issued<br />
the first number of the Western Quarterly Reporter of<br />
Medical, Surgical and Natural Science, published by John<br />
P. Foote of Cincinnati, that a medical periodical actually<br />
came into existence. After only six numbers Dr. Godman<br />
returned East and the work was discontinued. It was intended<br />
that Dr. Drake should revive the publication at<br />
Lexington, but he was unable to do so.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first successful and continuous medical periodical<br />
Of
156<br />
WESTERN JOURNAL<br />
MEDICAIi AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES.<br />
EDITED BY DANIEL DRAKE, M. D.<br />
L^TE PROFESSOR OF CLIMCAL MEDICINE<br />
TH THE MEDICAL COUEOIB<br />
OF OHIO, AND FORMERLV FROFESeOR IN TRANSXLVANIA tTiraVEKtlTy^<br />
AND THE JEFFERSON UEDICAL COLLEGE.<br />
VOL. vn.<br />
SECOND HEXADE—VOL. L<br />
CINCINNATI, OHIO.<br />
PRWTED AND PUBLISHED, QVARTEBLV, AT TUS CHRONICLE OmCE,<br />
NO. 5, jonnsTON** row, crrn maiuist>t.<br />
BY E. DEMING.<br />
1S34.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> natural <strong>his</strong>tory of the Mississippi States is a suh]ect of interest,<br />
both in a professional and a national point of view; and<br />
as there is<br />
not in t<strong>his</strong> region, any MAGAZINE devoted to the<br />
Physical Sciences, the Editors will he gratified to . . . make<br />
public,<br />
all kinds of original facts and observations on the Climate,<br />
Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology of the States, which lie between<br />
the Lakes and the Gulph of Mexico."
157<br />
in the West began in April, 1826. At that time Drs. Guy<br />
W. Wright and James M. Mason started at Cincinnati the<br />
semimonthly Ohio Medical Repository of Original and<br />
Selected Intelligence, which was soon changed to a monthly.<br />
In April, 1827, Dr. Drake replaced Dr. Mason, and the title<br />
changed to the Western Medical and Physical Journal,<br />
Original and Eclectic, also a monthly. After one volume<br />
(1828) Drake edited it alone as the Western Journal of<br />
the Medical and Physical Sciences, and changed it into a<br />
quarterly after the second volume (1829). His first editorial<br />
adjunct was Dr. James C. Finley in 1830; later he<br />
added Dr. William Wood, then Drs. Gross and John P.<br />
Harrison. Its last number was issued in July, 1838.<br />
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes as chairman of the American<br />
Medical Association's committee on medical literature<br />
in 1848 criticized the medical journals of the period for a<br />
lack of originality. "<strong>The</strong> same articles have been presented<br />
over and over again ... in many different periodicals,<br />
each borrowing from its neighbours the best papers of the<br />
last preceding number, so that the perusal of many is not<br />
so much more laborious than that of a single one, as would<br />
be anticipated. <strong>The</strong> ring of editors sit in each other's laps."<br />
<strong>The</strong> Western Journal was perhaps less deserving of t<strong>his</strong><br />
criticism than many other periodicals, since it devoted<br />
much space to original materials. Its numbers consisted of<br />
discussions of cases and essays, reviews and bibliographical<br />
notices, and miscellaneous intelligence— analectic, analytical,<br />
and original. A study of its contributors reveals many<br />
familiar names— Eberle, Finley, Cross, Caldwell, James M.<br />
Staughton, Landon C. Rives, Joseph Nash McDowell,<br />
Gross, and again and again Drake. Members of the profession<br />
in Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, and Georgia at<br />
different times made contributions.<br />
Fevers, epidemics, surgical<br />
discoveries, paralysis, "dyssentery," drugs and their<br />
effects were dealt with at appropriate times. Professional<br />
topics of the day— medical education, the role of the preceptor,<br />
quacks, intemperance, were given their due, as were
158<br />
such items of public interest as spontaneous human combustion.®*<br />
In 1839 the Western Journal united with the Louisville<br />
Journal of Medicine and Surgery, a quarterly which had<br />
been started in January, 1838, by Professors Henry Miller,<br />
Yandell, and Thomas H, Bell of the Louisville Medical<br />
Institute, but which had suspended after the second number<br />
in April, 1838. <strong>The</strong> new monthly appeared in January,<br />
1840, under the title of the Western Journal of Medicine<br />
and Surgery and continued until 1855. Drs. Drake and<br />
Yandell, its first editors, were later joined by Dr. Thomas<br />
W. Colescott. Dr. Drake later (in 1852) stated: "In 1849,<br />
my connection with it was dissolved, and also that of<br />
Dr. Colescott, since which it has been continued by<br />
Professor Yandell and Dr. Bell." T<strong>his</strong> periodical was superseded<br />
in 1 8 5 6 by the Louisville Review, which merged the<br />
next year with the Medical Examiner and Record of Medical<br />
Science of Philadelphia to form the North American<br />
Medico-Chirnrgical Review. T<strong>his</strong> journal ran five volumes,<br />
1857 to 1861.<br />
Lexington's contribution to medical journaHsm was the<br />
quarterly Transylvania Journal of Medicine and the Associate<br />
Sciences, which under the editorship of Drs. John<br />
Esten Cooke and Charles W. Short, and later L. P. Yandell<br />
and Robert Peter, was in existence from 1828 to 1839.<br />
After the Transylvania faculty conflict of 1837 t<strong>his</strong> periodical<br />
deteriorated noticeably.<br />
Ohio Medical College added its effort, the Western Medical<br />
Gazette, a semimonthly, which was published from<br />
December, 1832, to August, 1833, by Dr. Eberle, assisted<br />
by Drs. Staughton, Bailey, Mitchell, and Goldsmith. It<br />
was soon revived by Silas Reed and Dr. Gross as a monthly.<br />
In April, 1 8 3 5 , it was absorbed by Drake's Western Journal.<br />
Two years later, in 1837, Dr. Eberle and various members<br />
of the Ohio Medical College—Smith, Moorhead, John<br />
Locke, Jedediah Cobb, John T. Shotwell— again undertook<br />
a publication, the Western Quarterly Journal of<br />
Practical Medicine, which issued only the June number.
159<br />
During t<strong>his</strong> same period, from September, 1835, to January,<br />
1836, Dr. James M. Mason edited at Cincinnati the<br />
monthly Ohio Medical Repository. In 1842 the monthly<br />
Western Lancet was begun by Dr. Leonidas M. Lawson and<br />
continued until 1859. At that time it combined with the<br />
monthly Medical Observer^ which had been started in 1856<br />
by George Mendenhall, John A. Murphy, and E. S. Stevens,<br />
to form the Cincinnati Lancet and Observer. In 1873 it<br />
was purchased by J. C. Culbertson, who in 1878 acquired<br />
control of the Clinic, which had published, under the auspices<br />
of the Ohio Medical College, fourteen volumes since<br />
1871. T<strong>his</strong> combination was called the Cincinnati Lancet<br />
and Clinic and within a few years became the Cincinnati<br />
Lancet-Clinic. After Culbertson's retirement it lost much<br />
of its prestige and influence, but in 1907 gained a new lease<br />
on life when it came under new managership. It continued<br />
to publish until November, 1916.<br />
Dr. A. H. Baker, the founder of the Cincinnati College<br />
of Medicine and Surgery, published a monthly journal in<br />
the interests of <strong>his</strong> school, known as the Cincinnati Medical<br />
News; devoted to the dissemination of truth. It began in<br />
1858 and was suspended in 1863. In 1860 its name was<br />
changed to Cincinnati Medical and Surgical Neivs. At Columbus<br />
was published from 1848 to November, 1864, the<br />
Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal. It was revived and a<br />
new series ran from 1876 to 1878.<br />
<strong>The</strong> journalistic contribution of Illinois consisted primarily<br />
of the Illinois Medical and Surgical Journal, which<br />
lasted from 1844 to 1889. It was edited by James Van Sandt<br />
Blaney in Chicago. After two volumes it became known<br />
as the Illinois and Indiana Medical and Surgical Journal.<br />
Volumes V to XIV were the Northivestern Medical and<br />
Surgical Journal; from XV (1859) to XXXII it was the<br />
Chicago Medical Journal.<br />
Michigan's Peninsular Journal of Medicine and the<br />
Collateral Sciences was begun in 1853 by Dr. Edmund<br />
Andrews at Ann Arbor. With volume II, Dr. A. B. Palmer<br />
joined the staff, and with volume III, Andrews dropped out
160<br />
and Drs. Zana Pitcher, "W. Brodie, and E. P. Christian were<br />
added. When in 1856 the Veninsular Journal rejected one<br />
of <strong>his</strong> articles, Dr. Henry Goadby, of Detroit, in something<br />
of a huff started the Medical hidepeitdent and Monthly<br />
Review of Medicine and Surgery. With the aid of Drs.<br />
Edward Kane and L. G. Robertson he kept it going until<br />
1858, when it was absorbed by the older periodical. T<strong>his</strong><br />
consolidation became known as the Peninsular and Independent<br />
Medical Journal, devoted to medicine, surgery, and<br />
pharmacy, and was edited by Drs. Palmer, Moses Gunn,<br />
and Frederick Stearns. It continued at Detroit until 1860.<br />
Missouri had as its first medical periodical the St. Louis<br />
Medical and Surgical Journal, a bimonthly, started by Dr.<br />
M. L. Linton in April, 1843. It was enlarged in 1845 and<br />
Drs. W. M. McPheeters and V. J. Torgeaud became associated<br />
with it. In November, 1861, since McPheeters had<br />
joined the army, publication was suspended; it resumed in<br />
January, 1864, and continued until 1907. <strong>The</strong> Missouri<br />
Medical and Surgical Journal began in May, 1845, with<br />
Dr. R. F. Stevens as editor and the faculty members of<br />
Kemper College as associate editors. In September, 1848, it<br />
merged with the St. Louis Journal. Missouri's other periodical,<br />
the Kansas City Review of Medicine and Surgery, was<br />
a bimonthly which originated in January, 1858, under the<br />
editorship and ownership of Drs. <strong>The</strong>odore S. Case and<br />
G. M. B. Maughs. Because of the war it ceased publication<br />
in April, 1861.<br />
Iowa physicians had one professional magazine in the<br />
prewar period, the lotva Medical Journal, which between<br />
1853 and 1869 published five volumes at Keokuk. Indiana<br />
and Wisconsin had no medical periodicals of consequence<br />
until the second half of the century. At the town of Hanover,<br />
Indiana, in 1836, Dr. Buell Eastman announced the<br />
ambitious project of the Itinerant "Physician. <strong>The</strong> first<br />
number— probably due to premature birth, since it was<br />
dated "1736"— seems to have been the last. Its early<br />
demise was not caused by lack of an omniverous program<br />
— it lacked only subscribers.
161<br />
In the absence of data regarding the circulation of these<br />
western medical periodicals it is impossible even to make<br />
an estimate. Editors, though they complained of delinquent<br />
subscribers, seldom revealed circulation figures. <strong>The</strong> free<br />
mailing list was large, particularly of the periodicals published<br />
by medical schools, copies of which were sent to many<br />
newspapers of the region for publicity purposes, as well as<br />
to other periodicals. Any but the best-established of these<br />
journals probably did well to average three hundred paid<br />
subscriptions. As with the general magazines, they had<br />
more readers than subscribers, but not so many in proportion.<br />
Probably few of them were financially self-sustaining.<br />
<strong>The</strong> supporting income from patent medicine advertising,<br />
the chief reliance of most newspapers, was not available to<br />
them.<br />
Dentistry as a profession was only beginning. For the<br />
ordinary toothaches there were home remedies aplenty, and<br />
when too far gone the tooth was looped with a string and<br />
pulled by a friend, or the string was hitched to a springy<br />
bent sapling, which, when released, would yank out the<br />
offender. At least one case is recorded in which the rugged<br />
old <strong>pioneer</strong>, after holding the sapling for a couple of hours,<br />
lost <strong>his</strong> nerve, got sleepy, so cut the string and went home<br />
in disgust. Difficult cases were taken to the country doctor,<br />
who, with a torturous crank-like lever known as a "puUikin"<br />
or a turnkey, sometimes achieved the desired result.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> instrument worked on the leverage principle, the grip<br />
increasing with the amount of resistance offered. It could<br />
not easily break the jaw, for its main arm pressed down<br />
while the loose end, placed under the tooth, lifted. <strong>The</strong><br />
doctor knew the patient would throw <strong>his</strong> head the way the<br />
iron was turning, hence could prepare by taking a strong<br />
arm hold on the patient's head. Later forceps of assorted<br />
sizes and shapes were used. When teeth decayed without<br />
excessive pain, the dead stumps and roots were, as a rule,<br />
not interfered with. Plugs of tinfoil were sometimes used
162<br />
to advantage by fastidious persons, as t<strong>his</strong> substance showed<br />
less conspicuously than gold leaf.<br />
Once the teeth were extracted it was impossible for the<br />
average person to have them replaced, and toothless gums<br />
were common among older folk. Some thought that diseases<br />
of the teeth were more common in the United States<br />
than in England or Germany. It was recognized at t<strong>his</strong><br />
time that diseases of the mouth were more prevalent in<br />
civilized than in savage life. Among the causes assigned<br />
was, "It is the law of the animal economy, that the organ<br />
oftenest thrown into high excitement, is most liable to<br />
disease. Now the civilized state is one of wealth and luxury;<br />
it is emphatically an eating state."<br />
Aside from natural wear, tear, and neglect, the salivating<br />
effects of the overdoses of calomel, and possibly fevers<br />
and constitutional afflictions were no doubt aggravating<br />
factors. By the 1820's some itinerant dentists were available<br />
in the larger towns of the West. One such travelling practitioner<br />
who devoted the seven years between 1830 and<br />
1837 entirely to dental surgery, reported in the (Columbus)<br />
Daily Journal and Register, December 6, 1837, that<br />
he had "travelled between 25 and 30 thousand miles in different<br />
parts of the United States."<br />
In 1815, Robert Smether, dentist, informed Chillicothe<br />
ladies and gentlemen by notice in the Supporter that he<br />
extracted and cleaned teeth, removed causes of their decay,<br />
and could cure the "scorbutic complaint" of the gums<br />
which caused teeth to become loose. <strong>The</strong> next year<br />
"T. Etheridge, Surgeon Dentist" announced in the Liberty<br />
Hall that he would "tarry a short time" in Cincinnati.<br />
"He cleans, whitens, and separates the Teeth, without<br />
the least pain; and when the molares or double teeth, become<br />
hollow and useless, he plugs them with gold or tinfoil,<br />
which often restores them to their former usefulness: and<br />
he inserts ARTIFICIAL TEETH from one to a set, in a<br />
neat and durable manner; & when advisable to have them<br />
set,<br />
warrants them to be permanent."<br />
Itinerant dentists, many of them mere tooth-pullers.
163<br />
were not always accorded the greatest regard ; for example,<br />
one writer used more than a column of the front page of<br />
the Cincinnati National Republican and Ohio Political<br />
Register, August 10,1824, to discuss "<strong>The</strong> Tooth-Drawer,"<br />
who "is a most savage little animal" and who "desires that<br />
the world had but one tooth that he might wrench it out<br />
by a single twist! . . . He has the confidence to consider a<br />
man's throat as public property, and will intrude himself<br />
into <strong>his</strong> mouth, ransack <strong>his</strong> jaws, and pilfer him of <strong>his</strong><br />
teeth, without the least hesitation .... He has no time<br />
nor inclination to think of anything, save ravishing people<br />
of their teeth. A Tooth Drawer is as forward as he is foolish—<br />
as important as he is ignorant— and as impenetrable<br />
as he is impertinent."<br />
In 1837 in Columbus "Mr. Powell, Operative Dentist"<br />
had "on hand a beautiful and well selected assortment of<br />
PORCELAIN TEETH, consisting of French and American<br />
Manufacture, which, in point of strength, beauty, and<br />
durability, is superior to any other material that has ever<br />
been used for artificial teeth." By 1840 in Cincinnati was<br />
used a "new substance, like clay, [which] pushed firmly<br />
in the teeth, hardens in a day or two like the tooth itself."<br />
Such a feat in an era of hard times and bank failures called<br />
forth the comment from a newspaper editor that it was<br />
now possible to mend almost everything except dishonesty.<br />
Dentistry was usually practiced, not as a specialty, but<br />
in conjunction with medicine. One of the first opportunities,<br />
if not the first, for dental instruction in schools in the<br />
West was offered when Dr. John Harris of Bainbridge,<br />
Ohio, announced in the Chillicothe Supporter and Gazette,<br />
November 1, 1827, the opening of <strong>his</strong> "School of Medical<br />
Instruction," equipped with:<br />
"Anatomical preparations and Chemical Apparatus, sufficiently<br />
extensive for the exhibition of many important<br />
experiments. He will deliver Lectures, during the winter<br />
season, at least once a week on each of the following<br />
branches, viz.: Demonstrative Anatomy, Operative Surgery<br />
and Chemistry; and during the summer season he will
164<br />
devote as much of <strong>his</strong> time in lecturing on Osteology,<br />
Physiology, Materia Medica, <strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Medicine<br />
and Obstetrics, as <strong>his</strong> professional avocations may permit;<br />
and every possible facility will be afforded to those<br />
who may see cause to patronize <strong>his</strong> efforts.<br />
No student will<br />
be received who has not at least a first rate English education.<br />
Terms of tuition will be reasonable, depending on<br />
circumstances. October 25, 1827."<br />
By the same medium, from February 21, 1828, to December<br />
3, 1828, Dr. Harris added further: "From <strong>his</strong><br />
knowledge of the Medical Profession Surgery and Dental<br />
Surgery in particular, he flatters himself that he shall be<br />
able to render general satisfaction to all, who may have<br />
occasion to employ him."<br />
From 1835 to 1836 Dr. Harris attended a course in<br />
medicine and gave dental instruction at Transylvania. In<br />
1836 he tried to obtain a charter for a regular university<br />
dental institution in Ohio, but failed. T<strong>his</strong> has been mentioned<br />
as the first effort anywhere to obtain legislative permission<br />
for a dental school. In the winter of 1839-40<br />
Dr. Chapin A. Harris, brother and student of Dr. John,<br />
succeeded in obtaining a charter for the first dental college<br />
in the world at Baltimore.<br />
Dr. Chapin A. Harris was the instigator, and became the<br />
editor, of the American Journal of Dental Science, New<br />
York, 1839, the profession's first periodical. <strong>The</strong> second<br />
periodical worthy of note was Dr. James Taylor's quarterly<br />
Dental Register of the West, published at Cincinnati, under<br />
t<strong>his</strong> title, from 1847 to 1865. It became the Dental Register<br />
and issued its last number in November, 1923.<br />
Dr. Taylor, who had been a student of Dr. John Harris<br />
in the School of Medical Instruction, founded a dental<br />
college at Cincinnati in 1845, after <strong>his</strong> efforts to have it as<br />
a separate department in the Ohio Medical College had<br />
failed. "No funds, no buildings, no apparatus, and with but<br />
few competent teachers. However, through patience, labor,<br />
and anxiety, which endured year after year, success<br />
crowned their perseverance .<br />
."<br />
. . <strong>The</strong> school was char-
165<br />
tered by the forty-third General Assembly of Ohio and<br />
the college opened in a rented building. Students were<br />
required to pay a matriculation fee of $5, $25 to each professor<br />
per session, $10 for dissection tickets (optional), and<br />
$25 for diploma fee; $100 cash in advance would pay the<br />
cost of the whole course. For graduation the candidate was<br />
required to: present two full courses of lectures of which<br />
the last was to have been in Taylor's institution; be twentyone<br />
years of age and of good moral character; offer two<br />
years' study with a reputable practitioner or in lieu thereof<br />
one year's study in a medical school; present and defend a<br />
"written thesis on some subject relating to dental science,<br />
and be subject to a critical examination upon the theory<br />
and practice of dentistry." <strong>The</strong> school offered courses in<br />
anatomy and physiology, dental pathology and therapeutics,<br />
practical dentistry, and pharmacy. Of the twenty-one<br />
students enrolled for the 1845-46 session, eleven came from<br />
Ohio, five from Kentucky, two from Indiana, one each<br />
from New York, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Of these, six<br />
were graduated, each of whom was presented with a copy<br />
of the Bible, "a custom which prevailed for many years."<br />
From 1845 to 1858 ninety-nine were graduated.<br />
As dentists grew in numbers, they began to organize<br />
societies. In 1 844 both the Cincinnati Association of Dental<br />
Surgeons and the Mississippi Valley Association of Dental<br />
Surgeons were formed. At Cleveland in 1857 the Northern<br />
Ohio Dental Association came into being and two years<br />
later at Springfield, Ohio, was organized the Mad River<br />
Valley Association.<br />
Eye troubles received little attention. But few people<br />
used their eyes consistently for close work. When vision<br />
got bad, various spectacles from the stock of the peddler<br />
or general store were tried on until a pair was found to fit.<br />
Although astigmatism was discovered at the very beginning<br />
of the century and cylindrical lenses were being ground at<br />
Philadelphia in 1828, the rudiments of optometry were<br />
known by only a few; so spectacles only magnified to take<br />
care of "long-sightedness" and "short-sightedness.'* A few
166<br />
eye specialists began to appear by the late 1830's. Dr.<br />
Waldo of Columbus, for instance, announced in <strong>his</strong> "card"<br />
"special attention to Diseases of the Eye. Artificial Eyes inserted."<br />
It was probably easier to get a satisfactory glass<br />
eye than a satisfactory pair of glasses. Dr. Drake*s Cincinnati<br />
Eye Infirmary, founded in 1827, <strong>pioneer</strong>ed in institutionalized<br />
care; t<strong>his</strong> system was adopted in 1858 by the<br />
Chicago Eye and Ear Infirmary, and three years later the<br />
first Eye and Ear Clinic west of the Mississippi was established<br />
in Missouri by Simon Pollack.
y<br />
"THE PEOPLE'S DOCTORS''<br />
CHAPTER IV<br />
'<strong>The</strong>n thick as loctists darkening all the ground<br />
A tribe, with herbs and roots fantastic crown'd.<br />
All with some wondrous gift approach the people,<br />
— Lobelia, pulmel, and steam kettle."<br />
— Pope, <strong>The</strong> Dunciad, as modified by Daniel Drake.<br />
±he age-old tendency of unscientific ideas to attach<br />
themselves to, and operate within, the scope of a recognized<br />
science is perhaps best illustrated in the field of medicine.<br />
Around its periphery has ever hovered a mass of thought<br />
and practice ranging from the merely illogical to the obviously<br />
crackpot and superstitious, from sincere assumptions<br />
to premeditated fraud and quackery. Nor—keeping<br />
in mind that the "valid" science of one period, once discarded,<br />
frequently steps down to become the stock-intrade<br />
of the charlatans and ignorant of a later— is it always<br />
easy to draw the line. It is hard to deny that often the only<br />
difference between regular practice and empirical practice<br />
lay in the routine use of merely different remedies. Not<br />
always did the disadvantages rest with the irregular. By the<br />
law of averages the chances of success of one were about<br />
equal to those of the other. "It seems to be one of the rules
168<br />
of the faith in our art," wrote Dr. Walter Charming of<br />
Harvard, "that every truth must be helped into belief by<br />
some persuasive fiction of the school. And I . . . confess,<br />
that as far as I knovir, the medical profession can scarcely<br />
produce a single volume, in its practical department, from<br />
the works of Hippocrates down to the last made textbook,<br />
which, by the requisitions of an exact philosophy, will not<br />
be found to contain nearly as much fiction as truth."<br />
And, speaking of the Babel-like confusion which the<br />
public noted in the medical profession at the time of the<br />
cholera and which existed regarding other diseases as well,<br />
Dr. James Rush, son of the distinguished Dr. Benjamin,<br />
said:<br />
"Whence comes all t<strong>his</strong> Not from exact observation,<br />
which assimilates our minds to one consenting usefulness;<br />
which individualizes each one of us to<br />
but from fiction,<br />
our own solitary conceit, or herds us into sects for idle or<br />
mischievous contention with each other; which leads to<br />
continual imposition on the public, inasmuch as fictions,<br />
for a time, always draw more listeners than truth; which<br />
so generally gives to the mediocrity of men, and sometimes<br />
even to the palpably weak, a leading influence in our profession,<br />
and which helps the impostures of the advertising<br />
quack, who, being an unavoidable product of the pretending<br />
theories of the schools, may be called a physician<br />
with the requisite amount of fictions, but without respectability."^<br />
So it was in the Middle West, where the art of medicine<br />
was still floundering in its swaddling clothes of uncertainty<br />
and superstition. Always to be found was:<br />
"<strong>The</strong> professional buzzard . . . weakly watery-eyed,<br />
red-nosed old scarecrow who at some time in <strong>his</strong> early life<br />
has gotten hold of several recipes which he considers valuable<br />
and he is therefore induced to give suffering humanity<br />
the benefit of them. He has a decided weakness for<br />
*yarb medicines' which he gives in the form of slops and<br />
teas. He pours t<strong>his</strong> stuff down <strong>his</strong> dupes with the same
169<br />
idea, I imagine, that the hired girl pours dish-water down<br />
a rat-hole, that of filling a vacuum and killing time."^<br />
Although t<strong>his</strong> remark referred to the 1880's, it well<br />
describes conditions a generation earlier.<br />
In addition to the<br />
regular members of the profession, seventeen different<br />
kinds of "<strong>doctors</strong>" were named as practicing: eclectic,<br />
botanic, homeopathic, uroscopian, old Thomsonian, hydropathic,<br />
electric, faith, spiritual, herbalist, electropathic,<br />
vitapathic, botanico-medical, physio-medical, physioelectric,<br />
hygeo-therapeutic, and "traveling."^ Several others<br />
might be added, but t<strong>his</strong> inventory will serve as a<br />
working list. More than three quacks to every regular were<br />
reported in Wisconsin, and early Michigan's high death rate<br />
was said to result from their presence. Indiana was adjudged<br />
"a sink-hole in medical practice"; Ohio was condemned as<br />
a "paradise of the incompetent."<br />
Most prominent and influential among the irregular<br />
medical sects were the Thomsonians. Thomsonianism derived<br />
largely from aboriginal root and herb healing; in<br />
turn it became the point of departure for many minor<br />
groups and cults.<br />
Once a man has been labeled as a leader, a certain number<br />
of human beings will view with admiration; if he arise<br />
from the masses they will add awe and reverence. Such a<br />
man was Samuel Thomson, originator of the "steam system"<br />
of Botanic medicine, which swept the country, particularly<br />
the West, in the 1830's and 1840's.<br />
Thomson was born in 1769 at Alstead, New Hampshire.<br />
In modern parlance, he would be termed a "natural," for<br />
at the tender age of three, while driving the cows and<br />
minding the geese, he might have been found, he says, "very<br />
curious to know the names of all the herbs which I saw<br />
growing, and what they were good for; and to satisfy my<br />
curiosity was constantly making enquiries of those persons<br />
that I happened to be with, for that purpose. All the information<br />
I<br />
thus obtained, or by my own observation, I<br />
carefully laid up in my memory, and never forgot." Of<br />
particular persistence was <strong>his</strong> early unpleasant contact with
170<br />
the emetic lobelia, which in later years was the basic element<br />
of the Thomsonian materia medica.<br />
Formal education, except for one month, he lacked, for<br />
the rigors of living in uncleared New Hampshire during<br />
t<strong>his</strong> early period left little time for more than the struggle<br />
for existence. Although at sixteen he offered himself to<br />
study under a root doctor, he was turned down as deficient<br />
in education. In 1796 when the <strong>doctors</strong> had practically<br />
given up as hopeless the case of <strong>his</strong> daughter who was ill of<br />
scarlet fever, Thomson tried <strong>his</strong> first steam cure and was<br />
convinced that it saved the child. As <strong>his</strong> growing family<br />
required frequent medical service, he applied <strong>his</strong> selftaught<br />
vegetable treatments. His successes and a general<br />
distrust of the contemporary medical practices and ethics,<br />
combined with "a very strong aversion to working on a<br />
farm," led Thomson in 1805 to adopt the healing profession<br />
as <strong>his</strong> own. It remained merely "to fix upon some<br />
the treat-<br />
system, or plan for my future government in<br />
ment of disease."<br />
With Nature (and probably earlier herbals) as <strong>his</strong> guide<br />
and experience as <strong>his</strong> instructor he conceived and brought<br />
forth "the only correct theory" of treatment: all disease<br />
is the effect of one general cause, and may be removed by<br />
one general remedy. All animal bodies are formed of four<br />
elements: earth and water, air, and fire (or heat), the<br />
cause of life and motion. In a state of health a definite<br />
balance is maintained among these elements, but a change<br />
in any one of them naturally upsets the equilibrium. Cold,<br />
or lessening of the power of heat by the obstruction of<br />
perspiration, causes all diseases, for it is simple knowledge<br />
that no person ever dies of heat; he always gets cold first.<br />
Posi hoc— to prevent death one has merely to prevent the<br />
departure of the heat; to restore health one has to return<br />
heat to its natural extent. When t<strong>his</strong> has been done, it is<br />
necessary for the system to be cleared of all obstructions<br />
and to have restored a natural perspiration. <strong>The</strong> stomach<br />
can then digest the food taken into it, and as a result the<br />
whole body becomes nourished and invigorated and its heat
171<br />
or health can be maintained. T<strong>his</strong> system is applicable to<br />
all diseases in all mankind, for the only differences the doctor<br />
meets are individual variations in temperaments of the<br />
constituent elements.<br />
To cleanse the stomach and to aid in raising heat and<br />
promoting perspiration Dr. Thomson found Lobelia inflata,<br />
the "Puke Weed," most useful. Another concoction, con-<br />
Man in whom the "four elements" have jailed to maintain the<br />
required "definite<br />
balance."<br />
tents secret and known to <strong>his</strong> followers in later years as<br />
"No. 2," was effective in maintaining the heat in the stomach<br />
until the body could be cleared of obstructions,<br />
whereas "No. 3" was best for removing "canker" from the<br />
alimentary tract.^ Other supplementary preparations had<br />
similar uses. Experience in the yellow fever epidemic of<br />
1805 in Alstead and Walpole had proved the eflScacy of<br />
parboiling the patient to restore <strong>his</strong> natural heat. After<br />
much experimenting Dr. Thomson decided that the best<br />
method was to:<br />
"Take several stones of dilQferent sizes and put them in<br />
the fire until red hot, then take the smallest first, and put<br />
one of them into a pan or kettle of hot water, with the<br />
stone about half immersed— the patient must be undressed<br />
and a blanket put around him so as to shield <strong>his</strong>
172<br />
whole body from the air, and then place him over the<br />
steam. Change the stones as often as they grow cool, so<br />
as to keep up a lively steam, and keep them over it; if they<br />
are faint, throw a little cold water on the face and stomach,<br />
which will let down the outward heat and restore the<br />
strength— after they have been over the steam long<br />
enough, which will generally be about 15 or 20 minutes,<br />
they must be washed all over with cold water or spirit<br />
and be put in bed, or may be dressed, as the circumstances<br />
of the case shall permit."<br />
T<strong>his</strong> treatment with certain modifications was effective<br />
in cases of dropsy, cancer, humors, mortifications, "fellons,"<br />
dysentery, consumption, rheumatism, "scalt" head,<br />
venereal diseases, and fits. In <strong>his</strong> treatment of an old maid<br />
"much disordered for many years and very spleeny," complications<br />
of a serious nature almost developed, for so<br />
speedy was the woman's recovery that she immediately acquired<br />
a husband, who ungraciously accused Dr. Thomson<br />
of using love powder. Steaming might be supplemented<br />
at times by the use of an electrical machine for external<br />
applications. Perhaps t<strong>his</strong> was the Perkins influence.<br />
Dr. Thomson's <strong>cures</strong> naturally brought vociferous criticism<br />
from the regular members of the profession. In 1809-<br />
10 he was charged with murder after the death of a patient,<br />
supposedly from use of the "screw auger" lobelia. Fortunately<br />
for our story, if not for <strong>his</strong> patients, he was acquitted,<br />
perhaps much better off for the resultant publicity.^ A few<br />
years later a petition for a law against quackery, specifically<br />
naming him, was sent to the New Hampshire legislature.<br />
But the Law giveth as well as threateneth to take away,<br />
for in March, 1813, the United States Patent Of^ce granted<br />
a patent to Dr. Thomson— the first of a number which it<br />
was to issue to various "<strong>doctors</strong>" in ensuing years. T<strong>his</strong> gave<br />
him the exclusive right to administer six concoctions,<br />
"No. 1," "No. 2," etc., in the healing of specific diseases.<br />
Ten years later t<strong>his</strong> patent was replaced by a fourteenyear<br />
right, which before its expiration was renewed for<br />
another fourteen-year period.
173<br />
<strong>The</strong> system, having now been perfected and legalized,<br />
was ready to be propagated. Not that the law mattered<br />
much, for Thomson, not content to confine <strong>his</strong> practice<br />
to the range of a horseback-travelling doctor in New<br />
England, had moved from Beverly to Boston, where he<br />
opened an office and infirmary and had, since 1806, with<br />
the aid of authorized agents, been selling "Family Rights"<br />
which admitted aspirants into the ranks as full-fledged<br />
members of the "Friendly Botanic Societies." Members<br />
were sworn to secrecy regarding the intricacies of the<br />
Thomsonian <strong>cures</strong>.<br />
In 1821 he published a pamplet slightly longer than its<br />
title : A Brief Sketch of the Causes and Treatment of Disease,<br />
Addressed to the People of the United States; pointing<br />
out to them the Pernicious Consequences of Using Poisons<br />
as Medicine, such as Mercury, Arsenic, Nitre, Antimony,<br />
and Opium. Designed as an introduction to a full explanation<br />
to he published hereafter, of the system of practice<br />
discovered by the Author. <strong>The</strong> next year, assisted by Elias<br />
Smith, a Universalist preacher of Boston, he published<br />
A Narrative, of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel<br />
Thomson, .... To which is<br />
added an introduction to <strong>his</strong><br />
New Guide to health or Botanic Fa^nily Physician. An<br />
engraved certificate which came with the Neu/ Guide<br />
served as a diploma, and conferred upon the purchaser<br />
the right:<br />
"Of preparing and using, for himself and family, the<br />
Medicine and System of Practice secured to Samuel Thomson,<br />
by Letters Patent from the President of the United<br />
States; and ... is hereby constituted a member of the<br />
Friendly Botanic Society, and is entitled to an enjoyment<br />
of all the privileges attached to membership therein. . . .<br />
All Purchasers of Rights can have intercourse with each<br />
other for advice, by showing their Receipt. All those who<br />
partake, or have participated, in stolen rights, or what is<br />
virtually the same, have bought them of those who have<br />
no right to sell, can show no receipt, either from me or<br />
any of my agents, and are not to be patronized by you
174<br />
or any honest man, as they are Hable to sixty dollars fine<br />
for each and every trespass. Hold no counsel or advice<br />
with them, or with any who shall pretend to have made<br />
any improvement on my System of Practice, as I cannot be<br />
responsible for the effect of any such improvement. ^Resist<br />
the devil, and he will flee from you!*<br />
Though the price was $20, the book became a best seller.<br />
Under one title or another it ran through thirteen editions<br />
— the later ones mostly published in Ohio — and according<br />
to its author, sold over one hundred thousand copies.<br />
<strong>The</strong> fourth edition was translated into German for wouldbe<br />
practitioners of Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. <strong>The</strong><br />
New Guide or Family Physician was also published separately<br />
in several editions.<br />
From 1822 to 1837 Thomsonianism enjoyed a popularity<br />
more extensive than that of any other of the unorthodox<br />
systems. From its New Hampshire birthplace it spread<br />
to the rest of New England and to New York; from New<br />
York it moved southward as centers were established in<br />
New Jersey, Maryland, central Virginia, and Georgia.<br />
Westward it migrated to eastern Pennsylvania and into<br />
northern Ohio. After 1821 Charles Thomson, son of the<br />
founder, spent much time working in Ohio. In 1825<br />
Charles Miles was made general agent for Thomsonian promotional<br />
sales at Columbus; within a year and a half he<br />
sold five hundred rights. Horton Howard became controller<br />
of western headquarters at Columbus and in three<br />
and a half years sold four thousand rights in Ohio and<br />
neighboring states.<br />
In 1832 was started at Columbus the Thomsonian Recorder,<br />
or Impartial Advocate of Botanic Medicine,^ with<br />
Thomas Hersey as editor; he was succeeded two years later<br />
by Dr. Alvah Curtis. "In no period has the Botanic cause<br />
spread so successfully as it has since the Thomsonian Recorder<br />
began to command an extensive circulation," wrote<br />
the editor in October, 1833. A few months later:<br />
"Two years ago a man did not dare to come out boldly<br />
and avow himself in favor of the Thomsonian plan of
175<br />
curing disease, unless he wished to be ridiculed; but now<br />
a majority of the people of my acquaintance do not use<br />
any other remedies. <strong>The</strong>re is much sickness in our country<br />
and the greatest demand for Botanic Medicines I have<br />
ever known."<br />
<strong>The</strong> amount of sickness could not be appreciably increased,<br />
but the demand for Botanic medicines could. Now<br />
developed a high-powered sales promotional system which<br />
anticipated by years that of the sewing machine companies.<br />
Agents were dispatched "By different directions, Eastward<br />
and Southward, et cetera, and in their several routes,<br />
to have an opportunity to give all their principal Agents,<br />
and many others a personal call." <strong>The</strong>se agents were authorized<br />
to sell the "System" to any and all who could be<br />
persuaded to buy. According to lists in the Recorder, Ohio<br />
and Tennessee led with the largest number of agents, but<br />
Indiana, Illinois, and other states were well represented.<br />
It is not clear under what financial arrangements these<br />
agents operated, but it was probably on commission. Some<br />
of them gave lectures as well as sold books and rights. At<br />
Cincinnati, for instance, in 1829 Dr. Samuel Robinson<br />
delivered "A Course of Fifteen Lectures, on Medical Botany,<br />
denominated Thomson's New <strong>The</strong>ory of Medical<br />
Practice; in which the various theories that have preceded<br />
it,<br />
are reviewed and compared." Tickets were 25 cents for<br />
individual lectures or $1.50 for the course. <strong>The</strong>se lectures<br />
were later (1829) edited and published by Horton Howard<br />
of Columbus; subsequently five other editions were issued<br />
at Columbus and Boston. Among the Botanic medical<br />
works t<strong>his</strong> publication was surpassed in sales only by<br />
Thomson's Narrative and New Guide. Thomson stated in<br />
<strong>his</strong> Narrative that "Those lectures were delivered without<br />
my knowledge, being at the time a thousand miles from<br />
that place. Horton Howard obtained them, while acting<br />
as my agent, paid for them out of my money, secured the<br />
copy right in <strong>his</strong> own name, and printed an edition of<br />
them, which he sold for <strong>his</strong> own benefit. T<strong>his</strong> book gave a<br />
great spread to the sale of rights.<br />
I have since secured the
176<br />
copy right in Boston, and printed an edition of two thousand<br />
copies, which are seUing from fifty to sixty-two and<br />
a half cents a copy. <strong>The</strong>y contain much information relative<br />
to the practice of medicine as taught in medical colleges,<br />
and found in medical authors; not to be found elsewhere<br />
in so small and cheap a work." "He is entitled to<br />
much credit for t<strong>his</strong> service done the system."<br />
<strong>The</strong> success of the Thomson and Robinson books led to<br />
spontaneous publication of a small deluge of Botanic medical<br />
works. Among others. Miles, who had been selling<br />
Thomson's books, published <strong>his</strong> own New and Improved<br />
System of Medical Botanical Practice at<br />
"Cleaveland" in<br />
1829, in which he made no mention of Samuel Thomson.<br />
Horton Howard published a three-volume An Improved<br />
System of Botanic Medicine at Columbus in 1832. Two<br />
m.ore editions followed. A one-volume edition was published<br />
by J. Kost of Cincinnati in 1852. Meanwhile<br />
J. Kost, M.D., wrote, and published at Mt. Vernon <strong>his</strong> Practice<br />
of Medicine according to the Plan Most Approved by<br />
the Reformed or Botanic Colleges etc. etc.^ <strong>The</strong>se books<br />
drew upon Rafinesque and others for plant illustrations and<br />
were of much more elaborate content than the original<br />
Thomson. Without illustrations, but with seven hundred<br />
pages and two hundred thirty "valuable vegetable remedies"<br />
plus a dispensatory was J. E. Carter's <strong>The</strong> Botanic<br />
Physician or Family Medical Adviser, published at Madisonville,<br />
Tennessee, in 1837. <strong>The</strong>re were many others.<br />
Even printers ran off anonymous Botanic manuals. At<br />
Norwalk, Ohio, in 1835, for instance, S. and C. A. Preston<br />
set up and distributed the thirty-page <strong>The</strong> Medical Instructor,<br />
or the Cause and Cure of Disorders, expressed in<br />
Plain, Easy Language, and Intended for the Great Benefit<br />
of Manki7td.<br />
Botanic medicines were widely advertised, not only in<br />
Botanic publications but in general newspapers as well.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were dispensed both wholesale and retail in such centers<br />
as Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, and St. Louis.<br />
Directions given in Thomson's book for preparation of
177<br />
the medicines recommended were quite general and indefinite;<br />
he warned <strong>his</strong> followers that the most efficacious<br />
remedies were manufactured by establishments which he<br />
either owned or controlled. <strong>The</strong> largest of these, located in<br />
Cincinnati, to a great extent supplied the western territory.<br />
<strong>The</strong> need for medicines was apparent if the Thomsonian<br />
recipes were to be followed. For instance, for a dyspeptic<br />
patient who had suffered seven years was recommended a<br />
treatment of Composition No. 6, Spice Bitters, and Nerve<br />
Powders every two or three hours for several days, "then<br />
I carried him through a full course of medicine." Since he<br />
sweat but little in a steam bath,<br />
"I gave him the warming medicine very freely, such as<br />
Nos. 2 and 6, Composition, &c. I rubbed the surface of the<br />
body freely with cold water, vinegar and salt, mixed—repeating<br />
these applications several times, while over the<br />
steam. After about an hour I applied cold water and vinegar,<br />
by means of a towel—then dressed and put him to<br />
bed, gave him an emetic, repeating the dose till I had given<br />
him twelve large tea spoonsful of the Third Preparation.<br />
It operated slowly after several hours.<br />
I then resumed the<br />
use of medicine first prescribed. I gave freely of Nos. 2, 3,<br />
4, 5, and 6; Nerve Powders, Stomachic Bitters, Conserve<br />
of Hollyhock, and Golden Seal. I prepared bitters of equal<br />
parts of Golden Seal, Columbo Root, Nerve Powders, Unicorn<br />
Root, Balmony, Poplar Bark, with enough Bitter Root<br />
to obviate or remove costiveness, and Cayenne sufficient to<br />
make the medicine quite warm. T<strong>his</strong> course I pursued,<br />
using alkalies, such as Pearlash, Sal Aeratus, &c, ... I proceeded<br />
afterwards to take him through another full course<br />
of medicine, then resumed the treatment with tonics and<br />
stimulants as before."^<br />
Or for a child bitten by a spider:<br />
"I commenced by giving it, in the first place, a teaspoonful<br />
of bear's oil. I then administered an injection, prepared<br />
with Nos. 2 and 3, in which I put two tea-spoonsful<br />
of the Third Preparation of No. 1; immediately after I<br />
sponged it with No. 6 and Tincture of Lobelia. After
178<br />
waiting an hour and a half, I administered another injection,<br />
in which I put one tea-spoonful of the Third Preparation<br />
of No. 1, and one of the Tincture. I then steamed<br />
it and gave it a tea-spoonful of the Tincture of Lobelia.<br />
<strong>The</strong> medicines failed to operate, and its fits continued hard,<br />
and became more frequent. Seeing that the medicine I<br />
had already given it failed to operate, I concluded that I<br />
would give it no more; but, being overpursuaded by the<br />
family, I administered a third injection, prepared like the<br />
second, steamed and sponged it again, and gave it another<br />
teaspoonful of the Tincture No. 1 of Lobelia. Its system<br />
then became relaxed, and vomitting followed. Its fits<br />
ceased— it then being about midnight— by sunrise next<br />
morning, it could not have been discovered that the child<br />
had ever been sick, and has done well ever since."®<br />
In 1835 the Botanies maintained that half of the people<br />
of Ohio relied upon their system; the regular <strong>doctors</strong> conceded<br />
one-third. Even the Governor of Mississippi stated<br />
publicly that one-half the people of <strong>his</strong> state were adherents.<br />
Wrote the editor of the Thomsonian Recorder, March<br />
1, 1834: "<strong>The</strong> practice is every day gaining a stronger hold<br />
in the minds of the American people. Not less than one<br />
million and a half of our fellow-citizens now believe in it,<br />
and adopt it solely in their families. And never was the<br />
System progressing with more rapid strides. We have an<br />
opportunity of knowing, and speak advisedly. Within the<br />
last twelve months, the demand for rights and medicine<br />
has increased in ten-fold proportion— far beyond our<br />
ability of supplying." By 1839 Thomson claimed three<br />
million followers in the United States. Of one thing he<br />
was positive: "that I have been the cause of awakening a<br />
spirit of enquiry among the people of t<strong>his</strong><br />
country, into<br />
the medical practice and the fashionable manner of treatment<br />
in curing disease, from which great benefits will be<br />
derived to the Community." With equal modesty Dr.<br />
Alvah Curtis said, "<strong>The</strong> Thomsonian system in forty years<br />
has saved more millions of human beings from a miserable
179<br />
life and a premature grave than the whole United States<br />
contained in the days of Washington."<br />
<strong>The</strong> reasons for the great popularity of Thomsonianism<br />
are fairly obvious. <strong>The</strong> relative simplicity of the system<br />
made a wide appeal; it linked up closely with the Indian herb<br />
practice, belief in which was deep-seated in the minds of<br />
many people. Persons who viewed with dread the mysterious<br />
prescriptions of the regulars were inclined to feel confidence<br />
in medicines with which they were familiar. <strong>The</strong><br />
Thomsonian system offered a solution to the problem of<br />
the shortage of <strong>doctors</strong>, particularly in those regions where<br />
the population was growing more rapidly than the number<br />
of regularly trained <strong>doctors</strong>. Any one could practice Botanic<br />
medicine without previous experience or training.<br />
That it was profitable— at least to promoters — goes without<br />
saying; $20 for a book and license was much cheaper<br />
than medical school or the cost of several years of preceptorial<br />
training.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Botanies also cashed in upon a certain prejudice,<br />
prevalent in the popular mind, against the regular <strong>doctors</strong>.<br />
Not only were the latter accused of disseminating poisonous<br />
medicines and of bleeding their patients, but of bleeding<br />
their pocket-books as well. Furthermore, the regulars<br />
promised no certain cure; the Botanies did. <strong>The</strong> latter were<br />
sure they had the "peculiar blessing of the Almighty" upon<br />
their side. Even in the treatment of cholera, which nonplused<br />
the regulars, their success was amazing. Dr. Curtis<br />
reported only one death among two hundred patients who<br />
had received Botanic treatment, and several of these had<br />
been in a state of collapse when the treatments began. It is<br />
no doubt possible, as the regulars suggested, that the Thomsonians<br />
extended their cholera diagnoses to include almost<br />
everything from hives to whooping cough. But on the<br />
other hand there was the record of a Boston doctor who<br />
had given "over 1500 courses of medicine to more than<br />
one thousand patients in almost every state and stage of<br />
disease" and but one death occurred.<br />
More difficult to explain was the death of Horton
180<br />
Howard and most of <strong>his</strong> family from cholera. <strong>The</strong> editor of<br />
the Hamilton Intelligencer, August 31, 1833, who claimed<br />
to have had considerable faith in the Thomsonian system,<br />
said that t<strong>his</strong> was "not so good." For t<strong>his</strong> statement he<br />
received two columns of hot reply and resolutions from<br />
what he called the "Friendly Botanic anti-any-thing-elsethan-<br />
Lobelia -No. 6 -and -Hot Brick Branch Society of<br />
Hamilton and Rossville."<br />
Another advantage, not an exclusive privilege with<br />
Thomsonianism, however, was that the system existed "by<br />
authority"; that is, it was guaranteed by the Government,<br />
possibly by the President himself, who, it would be supposed,<br />
would recommend nothing that he had not tried on<br />
himself and believed useful for the people.<br />
power of a patent.<br />
Certainly not least<br />
Such was the<br />
among the appeals of Thomsonianism<br />
was its democracy. As its founder pointed out, man<br />
had three great interests: religion, government, and medicine.<br />
In the past these subjects had been controlled by three<br />
classes of men: priests, lawyers, and physicians. But those<br />
days of darkness "are done away." Scriptures were translated<br />
and the people had been taught to read. In government<br />
the "common people" had discovered the secrets of<br />
democracy. Likewise, medicine, which had in a great measure<br />
been concealed behind a dead language, was now being<br />
revealed to them. Quackery was being destroyed by the<br />
knowledge of its dangers being diffused among mankind.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> application of some dashing, unmeaning, foreign,<br />
difficult name to a simple medicine, or to a simple, common<br />
disease is calculated to strike an unlettered person speechless;<br />
and fancying that he is no more able to understand<br />
the preparation of the medicine, or the nature of the disease,<br />
than he is to comprehend its unintelligible technical name,<br />
he is readily induced to give over the study, as one beyond<br />
the reach of <strong>his</strong> intellect. <strong>The</strong> practice of encumbering the<br />
science of medicine with difficult, classic, technicals has<br />
hitherto secured to the faculty a privilege, which the Romish<br />
priests have lost; — viz: the exercising a despotic sway
181<br />
in controling all matters that pertained to their art. But<br />
the time has arrived when the impartial and intelligent will<br />
read and study for themselves; and the daw in borrowed<br />
feathers will be stripped of the foreign gaudy plumage<br />
with which learning had dressed her. 'Tis true, some of the<br />
faculty are as much disturbed about the reformation in<br />
medicine, as Demetrius and the craftsmen of Ephesus were<br />
at St. Paul's preaching in that city. And the cry is heard<br />
through every land, 'Great is Diana of the Faculty, whom<br />
not only the mercurial-mongers of America, but all the<br />
world worship.' "^^<br />
<strong>The</strong>se ideas fitted in perfectly with the rampant spirit<br />
of the times sometimes labeled "Jacksonian Democracy."<br />
Many people had an innate distrust of "book larnin',"<br />
whether in their "public sarvints," their preachers, or their<br />
<strong>doctors</strong>. <strong>The</strong> "riglars," with their Latin and all, too often<br />
were thought of as being vested interests. <strong>The</strong> "call" was<br />
more important than the training. After all, wasn't every<br />
man as good as everybody else— and possibly just a little<br />
bit better As Dr. Drake said, every quack is indeed a<br />
demagogue and relies for <strong>his</strong> success upon the same arts as<br />
<strong>his</strong> political and religious kinsmen. He convinces <strong>his</strong> followers<br />
that he is one of the people, whereas those who have<br />
spent their lives in acquiring the knowledge handed down<br />
by the great physicians of the past "are not of the people,<br />
but arrayed against the people, and bent on killing them<br />
off with rats bane .... Thus it is that the people allow<br />
themselves to be channed, till they lose their senses, and<br />
crawl into the serpent's mouth. Would you arrest them,<br />
you thrust yourself between a snake and a fool— to be<br />
<strong>his</strong>sed<br />
into wonderment by the former, and brayed into<br />
silence by the latter."<br />
Naturally such a good thing as Thomsonianism— financially,<br />
at least—found it difficult to maintain its integrity.<br />
Heresy breeds heresy; there threatened to be as many<br />
prophets as followers, as many "schools" of Botanic medicine<br />
as individual Botanies. Old Samuel's despotism— he<br />
was a good example of the not infrequent type which,
182<br />
while preaching the<br />
advantages of democracy, practices<br />
the arts of dictatorship— was resented by many of <strong>his</strong> followers,<br />
even <strong>his</strong> own sons. <strong>The</strong> ranks began to break as<br />
1827, when Dr. Wooster Beach of New York or-<br />
early as<br />
ganized the "Eclectic," or "Reformed," system of Botanic<br />
medicine. Another faction, headed by Horton Howard of<br />
Ohio, had in 1832 established themselves as the "Improved<br />
Botanies," but with the death of their leader in the cholera<br />
epidemic of 1833 t<strong>his</strong> offshoot began to disappear. One<br />
cause of contention was the question of schools. Since Dr.<br />
Thomson thought that formal education was a handicap<br />
in the practice of <strong>his</strong> medicine— and might also cut into<br />
<strong>his</strong> sales— he was opposed to the establishing of schools. As<br />
Dr. Thomas Cooke, whose Botanic Medical Reformer and<br />
Home Physician (Philadelphia, 1839) was a competitor of<br />
the Thomson books, said: "We have also always expressed<br />
favorable sentiments in regard to the establishment of Reformed<br />
Botanic Schools and Colleges; but we cannot see<br />
wherein the Thomsonian system requires a College to elucidate<br />
more particularly the ideas of Dr. Thomson on Medicine.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Book has it all. Go beyond that, and Dr.<br />
Thomson himself says: *He knoweth it not!* "<br />
In September, 1832, Thomson issued in the first number<br />
of the Recorder a call for a "United States Thomsonian<br />
Convention" of delegates from the various Friendly Botanic<br />
Societies. T<strong>his</strong> convention, which met at Columbus,<br />
Ohio, in December, was to exchange ideas on medicinal<br />
plants and remedial procedures, and promote the general<br />
progress of the cause. It was a combination pep-meeting,<br />
love fest, and pressure-group midwife. Between resolutions<br />
to state legislatures regarding medical legislation— the<br />
Ohio legislature a few weeks later repealed the law which<br />
restricted the practice of the Botanies and Alabama extended<br />
them equality the same year— the delegates listened<br />
to amazing written testimonials of the effectiveness of Botanic<br />
<strong>cures</strong> from those who could not attend.<br />
<strong>The</strong> second annual convention, held in Pittsburgh, attempted<br />
to create a permanent organization. It also aspired
183<br />
to found a "National Thomsonian Infirmary" at Baltimore,<br />
but t<strong>his</strong> project failed to secure legislative sanction.<br />
Nevertheless various infirmaries were established in the<br />
eastern states, as well as one at Columbus, headed by Dr.<br />
Alvah Curtis; shortly the Recorder was reporting impressive<br />
statistics of <strong>cures</strong> in these institutions. <strong>The</strong>re was Peter<br />
R. Jones, who had been "bound hand and foot nine days<br />
literally dissected by the British surgeons," then transferred<br />
to the Massachusetts General Hospital, where another dissection<br />
was recommended. To t<strong>his</strong> he "preferred the loss<br />
of life." He was cured at a Botanic infirmary by four<br />
courses of medicine. <strong>The</strong>re was also the case of "A Lady<br />
— deplorable state of mental derangement — attended by<br />
the celebrated Dr. Shattuck, and by him pronounced beyond<br />
the reach of medical aid, and advised that she be immediately<br />
removed to the Insane Hospital or Mad Hotise,<br />
who would prove the contrary. — But back to<br />
Pepperell, Mass. — cured in one week, and married in three<br />
months." Thousand-dollar rewards were posted for anyone<br />
the convention.<br />
A "Test Resolution" was adopted which prescribed the<br />
line for true Botanies: no practitioner was to use as medicine<br />
any animal, mineral, or vegetable poisons; bleed or<br />
blister; or use or sell any compounds the component parts<br />
of which were kept a secret, or any other article contrary<br />
to the principles laid down by the founder of the system.<br />
All t<strong>his</strong> in vain. As the year 1837 approached, and with<br />
it the expiration of Thomson's patent, the controversies<br />
between the factions began to multiply. Already schools<br />
for training in Botanic medicine had been opened in Georgia,<br />
Virginia, Tennessee, and Massachusetts. <strong>The</strong>se naturally<br />
favored the new, or "Reformed," Botanic system in<br />
opposition to the original Thomsonian brand. Likewise<br />
the dissensions of Drs. Curtis, Howard, and Beach, were<br />
becoming more open and aggressive. <strong>The</strong> formal parting<br />
of the ways did not occur, however, until the Philadelphia<br />
convention of 1838. Thomson was apparently aware of the<br />
fact that matters were getting out of hand. In <strong>his</strong> annual
184<br />
convention address he summarized the work of the various<br />
conventions, spoke of their difficulties, expressed <strong>his</strong> displeasure<br />
with some of its followers, then concluded: "With<br />
these considerations and with no other object than the permanent<br />
good of us all, so far as my System of Practice can<br />
contribute to that end, I ask that t<strong>his</strong> Convention may be<br />
forever dissolved." <strong>The</strong> convention did not adopt t<strong>his</strong> recommendation,<br />
but divided. One group, headed by Dr.<br />
Curtis, formed the "Independent Thomsonian Botanic Society,"<br />
and the old guard organized itself as the "United<br />
States Thomsonian Society." <strong>The</strong>reafter each organization,<br />
of course, regarded itself as the true society and branded<br />
the other as the heretic.<br />
<strong>The</strong> United States Thomsonian Society held its first<br />
meeting in New York in 1840, but the attendance was<br />
small. Only the state society of Delaware expressed its loyalty<br />
to the old system. Though Dr. Thomson tried to keep<br />
the organization intact, the heyday of <strong>his</strong> power had passed.<br />
Neither he nor <strong>his</strong> sons — he died in 1843 — were able to<br />
hold the old following together. For a while after Thomson's<br />
death three main groups of Botanies were apparent:<br />
the True Thomsonians, the Physiomedicals, and the Reformed<br />
Botanies, or Eclectics. <strong>The</strong> True Thomsonians,<br />
realizing that the name of their founder no longer carried<br />
the magic of earlier years, soon dropped <strong>his</strong> name from<br />
their societies and called themselves simply Botanies. Many<br />
of their better members deserted to one of the other factions;<br />
by the time of the Civil War the Botanies, as an<br />
organization, had practically disappeared.<br />
Meanwhile Dr. Curtis with <strong>his</strong> Independent Thomsonians<br />
had been assuming the domineering characteristics<br />
which he had so deplored in Dr. Thomson. He tried to<br />
channel <strong>his</strong> followers' beliefs into a definite system which<br />
he called Physiomedicalism. Whatever the differences between<br />
t<strong>his</strong> brand of Botanic practice and the older ones,<br />
they must have existed largely in the mind of Curtis. Like<br />
Thomson, he believed heat to be "the manifestation for<br />
life, the cause of fever, and cold an effect or obstruction,
185<br />
the cause of diseases." His agents were "lobelia, nervine,<br />
slippery elm, cayenne, bayberry, gum, myrrh and the like,<br />
with plenty of water, of a temperature suited to the cases,<br />
properly applied and judiciously selected, as to time, quality<br />
and manner." In pointing out the merits and distinguishing<br />
features of <strong>his</strong> system, Curtis said: "it counts<br />
irritation, fever and inflammation as so many modes of<br />
manifesting an interruption of the free action of the vital<br />
force,— of course, not disease, but a sanative effort. Secondly,<br />
it never seeks to diminish the power to produce the symptoms,<br />
but always to remove what prevents an equilibrium<br />
of vital action, whether that obstacle be a positive substance,<br />
as in retained secretions or excretions; or a mere<br />
condition, as in cramp, tetanus, the contraction of the<br />
surface in the incipient stages of fever, etc." Emphasis was<br />
placed upon "natural medication," or cure by the exercise<br />
of physiological laws.<br />
Dr. Curtis has been described as "very able but gushing,<br />
fussy and erratic; a host in himself, tremendously energetic,<br />
well educated, a good talker and reasoner and by<br />
nature a fighter." He was certainly one of the better educated<br />
among the Botanic leaders and advocated the use of<br />
schools in the training of Botanic physicians. In 1835,<br />
while he was still nominally a follower of Dr. Thomson,<br />
he had begun to instruct students in <strong>his</strong> own house and had<br />
followed t<strong>his</strong> by an application to the General Assembly<br />
for an Act of Incorporation. Announcements for the<br />
school which appeared in the papers in the autumn of 1837<br />
stated: "We wage an uncompromising and relentless warfare<br />
against quackery of all kinds, against every species and<br />
description of medical poisons and of direct processes for<br />
the reduction of the vital energies. <strong>The</strong> Science of Medicine,<br />
in our view, is<br />
that system of truths which indicate<br />
the means, and teach the art of aiding all the organs of the<br />
body, in their efforts to remove every obstruction to the<br />
full, free and universal action of the vital principle." Fees<br />
were $25 for five months. Prospects were considered good<br />
for a large class.<br />
"We are even informed that we shall be
186<br />
honored with the presence of several M.DJs. T<strong>his</strong> is right<br />
and proper, and will by no means offend us." Not until<br />
March, 1839, was the "Literary and Botanical-Medical Institute<br />
of Ohio" incorporated, with the powers of a university.<br />
Its medical department was opened at Columbus the<br />
following autumn as <strong>The</strong> College of Physicians and Surgeons.<br />
In 1841 it moved to Cincinnati, where some years<br />
later it underwent certain changes in organization. <strong>The</strong><br />
medical department became the Physiopathic College of<br />
Ohio. In 1859 the Physio-Medical Institute was organized<br />
and existed as such until it was finally suspended in 1885;<br />
its last five years, after the death of Dr. Curtis, were unimportant.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Thomsonian Recorder, which in 1837 changed its<br />
name to the Botanico-Medical Recorder, apparently moved<br />
with Curtis and the College to Cincinnati, where he continued<br />
to edit it until 1852. In that year it became the<br />
Physio-Medical Recorder, which lasted until 1880. In addition<br />
to <strong>his</strong><br />
editing Dr. Curtis wrote, among other books.<br />
Women<br />
Lectures on Midwifery and Diseases Peculiar to<br />
and Children, 1846; Synopsis of a Course of Lectures on<br />
Medical Science (as delivered at the College), 1846; and<br />
A Fair Examination and Criticism^ of All the Medical Systems<br />
in Yogue, 1855.<br />
If by the 1830's the story of the Botanies seems to become<br />
somewhat confused, so it was. For instance, there<br />
were the Botanico-Medicals, whose origin and life <strong>his</strong>tory<br />
are not clear. <strong>The</strong>y had neither a Thomson nor a Curtis to<br />
advertise them. In 1830 their strength was confined largely<br />
to three central-Atlantic states and Ohio. A few years<br />
later they were prominent also in Indiana. <strong>The</strong> Bloomington<br />
Medical Investigator, apparently intended as their<br />
organ, ran for a spell in 1 847. It reported the organization<br />
of various county societies, one with more than sixty members.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir system differed from that of the other Botanies<br />
in little more than name; it embodied the usual impossible<br />
remedies garnished with a few sprigs of common sense.
187<br />
By their own admission their <strong>cures</strong> constituted "the best<br />
means for the restoration of . . . health ever yet promulgated<br />
to the world. "^^ Even a regular could find little<br />
fault with the profound observ^ation that "severe suffering,<br />
colic,<br />
writhings, and crying in children generally follow a<br />
hearty meal of boiled or fried cabbage, crout or pickles."^^<br />
At the same time, the most thorough-going Thomsonian<br />
would have had difficulty in objecting to Tincture of Lobeha,<br />
"an excellent remedy in pht<strong>his</strong>ic, croup, whooping<br />
cough, bad colds and all catarrhal affectations, and is perfectly<br />
safe in its effects on all ages and conditions of persons."<br />
<strong>The</strong> method of preparation was thus: "Fill a jar with<br />
the green herb, well bruised and pressed, and for every<br />
quart which the jar will contain, add three or four pods of<br />
common red pepper; then pour on good w<strong>his</strong>key enough<br />
to cover the herb, and let it stand for use. <strong>The</strong> longer it<br />
stands, the stronger it will become."^^ And hardly anyone,<br />
regular or otherwise, could dispute the merits of the following<br />
"simple apparatus," did he believe in the hot bath:<br />
"Make a false cover for your tea-kettle of tin or sheet<br />
iron, pierce it with two holes, one small enough for a thumb<br />
screw, — the other large enough for the insertion of a short<br />
pipe or tube. Get a small trap of iron—make it crooked<br />
to suit the shape of the inside of the tea-kettle, have it<br />
punched in, or near the centre for the reception of the<br />
thumb screw which is intended merely to hold the cover<br />
to its place. Have two elbows made to suit the size of your<br />
pipe— say 1^ inches in diameter; then get four, five, or<br />
six tin pipes so made that they will slide into each other, —<br />
that is, have them smaller at one end than at the other, and<br />
each succeeding piece suited to the size of the preceding.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> completes the apparatus, and you may sit in your<br />
chair before the fire, or lie in bed and take your bath at<br />
your pleasure. <strong>The</strong> whole apparatus costs about 75 cents. "^*<br />
If neither t<strong>his</strong> gadget nor sitting in a chair on top of a<br />
washtub filled with boiling water generated enough heat,<br />
and particularly if one were a bit jaundiced in addition, one<br />
might:
188<br />
"Take a double handful of Wild-cherry tree bark— of<br />
the roots; — the same quantity of Yellow Poplar bark of<br />
the roots— or sarsaparilla roots — of the bark of the red<br />
Sumach roots—half the quantity of bitter root .... Boil<br />
these ingredients in two gallons of water until it is reduced<br />
to half a gallon; — pour off and strain the liquid. <strong>The</strong>n boil<br />
or simmer down to one pint— add t<strong>his</strong> to one gallon of<br />
hard cider — i shake it well— then add two ounces of garden<br />
Madder, or Madder of the hops. Commence with half<br />
a wineglassfull three times a day, increasing the dose gradually<br />
to half a teacupful or even more in bad cases.<br />
When<br />
"^"^<br />
you have drank half— add another half gallon of cider.<br />
If, in spite of— or possibly, one might add, because of<br />
— such treatments, a violent case of insanity should develop,<br />
"I endeavor to keep up a perspiration, by all the<br />
usual means which I can apply in the case—vomiting<br />
freely, once or twice, or even four times, in twenty-four<br />
hours, . . . where there is long continued . . . fever, I<br />
keep the patient constantly under the influence of lobeUa<br />
and skullcap ."^^<br />
. . . In the absence of evidence to the<br />
contrary we may have to take the word of the Botanico-<br />
Medicals: "We tried the remedies and were relieved; *Go<br />
thou and do likewise.' "^^<br />
"Eclecticism," or the "Reformed" system of Botanic<br />
medicine, is somewhat easier to identify, if not to explain.<br />
It stemmed largely from the Dr. Wooster Beach sc<strong>his</strong>m of<br />
1827. At an early age Beach had become interested in medical<br />
and theological research; later he fell under the influence<br />
of a Dr. Ferris, who was much interested in botany,<br />
and Dr. Jacob Tidd of New Jersey, with whom he studied<br />
and practiced. After attending a course of lectures of the<br />
College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York while<br />
Drs. Philip W. Post, David Hosack, Valentine Mott, and<br />
other distinguished men were professors, he located in New<br />
York in 1825, but soon found himself in disagreement with<br />
the theory of practice held by the regulars. He had sought<br />
to acquire knowledge of the best medical ideas of the<br />
Indian <strong>doctors</strong>, female practitioners, and Botanies, as well
189<br />
as those of the regulars. When a friend to whom he was<br />
expounding <strong>his</strong> theory of combining the good features of<br />
all these into a "reformed medicine" called him an "Eclectic,"<br />
the Beach system was named.<br />
It should be noted that the term "Eclecticism," as selfapplied<br />
by those of the Beach persuasion, was a narrow and<br />
specific use of a general term. Eclecticism literally means<br />
the practice of exercising choice among a number of doctrines<br />
or systems. <strong>The</strong> regular <strong>doctors</strong> generally so used the<br />
term when they applied it as a sort of epithet to all the<br />
irregular followings.<br />
Rafinesque in 1828 described eclectic<br />
physicians as those who selected and adopted in practice<br />
whatever was most beneficial, and who changed their prescriptions<br />
according to exigencies and acquired knowledge.<br />
All too frequently eclecticism meant different things to<br />
different persons.<br />
In its narrower sense Eclecticism, organized as a movement<br />
of protest against the practices of the regular <strong>doctors</strong>,<br />
was without definite positive concepts, but gradually some<br />
specific tenets were formulated. Dr. Thomas Vaughan<br />
Morrow, one of the <strong>pioneer</strong> leaders in the movement, said:<br />
"Our College [Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati]<br />
will be strictly what its name indicates— ECLECTIC—<br />
excluding all such medicines and such remedies as 'under<br />
the ordinary circumstances of their judicious use, are liable<br />
to produce evil consequences, or endanger the future health<br />
of the patient,' while we draw from any and every source<br />
all such medicines and modes of treating disease, as are<br />
found to be valuable, and at the same time, not necessarily<br />
attended with bad consequences." In the meeting of the<br />
National Eclectic Medical Association in 1852 the Eclectics<br />
pledged themselves to "maintain the utmost freedom of<br />
thought and investigation"; to use only such medication<br />
as should help Nature in effecting a recovery, the "safest,<br />
speediest and most efficient" though not exclusive method<br />
for which they believed to be a vegetable materia medica;<br />
and to exclude all "permanently depressing and disorganizing<br />
agencies . . . such as bleeding . . . and mineral pol-
190<br />
sons . . . [which] under the ordinary circumstance of<br />
their administration are Kable to injure the stamina of the<br />
human constitution."<br />
<strong>The</strong> early use of crude and bulky vegetable remedies in<br />
treatments, some so distasteful and repulsive that the sensitive<br />
patients found them beyond their powers of endurance,<br />
often served to restrict the general acceptance of<br />
Eclecticism. <strong>The</strong>se various unpleasant experiences of the<br />
patients led to experimentation with more palatable modes<br />
of administering <strong>cures</strong>. <strong>The</strong> Botanies had at a comparatively<br />
early date made use of the process of concentration,<br />
but the Eclectics did not find a satisfactory substitute until<br />
the discovery in 1847 by William S. Merrell of Cincinnati<br />
of the extractive principle. After successfully experimenting<br />
upon himself with the effects of the resin of the mandrake,<br />
he submitted <strong>his</strong> results to the Eclectic Institute,<br />
where they were received with acclaim; t<strong>his</strong> principle laid<br />
the foundation for the establishment of a "scientific" pharmacopoeia.<br />
A complete outline of <strong>his</strong> many observations<br />
and discoveries was first given in John King's Avterican<br />
Eclectic Dispensatory, 1858. <strong>The</strong> next step in Eclectic<br />
practice was the development of a series of concentrated<br />
fluid medicines, either "Ofiicinal Tinctures" made by dilutions<br />
of the tinctures of vegetable substances and alcohol,<br />
or "beautiful and efficient Medicinal Syrups" with dilutions<br />
of simple syrups.<br />
Dr. Beach had early recognized the value of publicity<br />
for the furtherance of <strong>his</strong> reforms. His three-volume work.<br />
<strong>The</strong> American Practice of Medicine (1833), which he sent<br />
with compliments to the rulers of England, France, Prvissia,<br />
Holland, Saxony, and Wurtemberg, and even to the<br />
Pope, had resulted in much publicity for him, as<br />
well as<br />
medals, decorations, and honorary fellowships in many foreign<br />
medical societies. He furthered <strong>his</strong> cause by the publication<br />
of two periodicals, the Telescope (New York,<br />
1824-29) and, later, the Ishmaelite.<br />
Eclectic education began in Beach's Reformed Medical<br />
Academy of New York, which he established in 1827.
191<br />
Since t<strong>his</strong><br />
school lacked the legal sanction of a legislative<br />
charter, he began to look for a new location. A number of<br />
applicants to the New York school had come from the<br />
was most natural that Beach should turn <strong>his</strong><br />
"West; thus it<br />
eyes, and send <strong>his</strong> circulars advertising for a site for a reformed<br />
medical college, to t<strong>his</strong> region. One of these came<br />
into the hands of Col. James Kilbourne, founder of Worthington,<br />
Ohio, who saw therein a means of salvation for the<br />
Worthington College, which, though at one time thriving,<br />
had met hard times. <strong>The</strong> Board of Trustees, at Kilbourne's<br />
request, issued Beach an invitation to use their charter and<br />
building for <strong>his</strong> proposed medical school in the West. Necessary<br />
charter amendments were made in 1829 and by the<br />
following December the Worthington Reformed Medical<br />
College was opened for students. According to a graduate<br />
of the school, its equipment included excellent chemical<br />
apparatus and an anatomy room well lighted and equipped<br />
like an amphitheater. Long announcements or advertisements<br />
were sent out to the newspapers regarding the course<br />
of study and admission requirements. Students upon entering<br />
were to become honorary members of the Reformed<br />
Editors who ran the<br />
Medical Society of the United States.<br />
notice fifty-two times were to receive free tuition certificates<br />
or $150 worth of medicines and advice from any<br />
member of the Society.<br />
Other means of publicity were also utilized. In November,<br />
183 3, the Ohio State Jo7irnal published a letter<br />
written by five students of the "Reformed Medical Department<br />
of Worthington College" to President Morrow.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y asked the differences between their system and others;<br />
whether the Reformed system ever used calomel or any<br />
mercury preparation, arsenic or antimony; and why they<br />
were frequently referred to as quacks and steam <strong>doctors</strong>.<br />
Morrow's three-column reply was in effect a prolonged<br />
sales<br />
talk for the Reformed system.<br />
Dr. John J. Steele was commissioned to establish the<br />
school but, since certain of <strong>his</strong> habits seemed to conflict<br />
with the moral sense of the community, he was succeeded
192<br />
by Dr. Thomas Vaughan Morrow as president.<br />
In the fall<br />
and winter term of 1839 were offered: Anatomy and<br />
Physiology for $12; Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence,<br />
$12; <strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Medicine and Midwifery, $12;<br />
Surgery and Diseases of Women and Children, $10; Botany,<br />
Materia Medica, and Pharmacology, $10. <strong>The</strong> charge<br />
for spring and summer sessions was only $5 per ticket.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was an optional $5 dissection fee; the fee for graduation<br />
was $10. Five daily lectures were given for five months<br />
in the fall and winter term; in alternate springs a threemonths'<br />
course was offered. <strong>The</strong> summer sessions were<br />
devoted to botanical field trips.<br />
Nine years of growth and prosperity followed the opening<br />
of the school, but the lifting of cadavers from a neighboring<br />
graveyard led to the formation of an infuriated mob<br />
which wrecked Dr. Morrow's home and practically demolished<br />
the college. He then moved to Cincinnati, where in<br />
1840 he organized the Reformed Medical School of Cincinnati<br />
"to effect a permanent and salutary form of the<br />
Healing Art in the most enlarged and liberal spirit of<br />
Medical Eclecticism." In the beginning t<strong>his</strong> school, like the<br />
earlier New York establishment, operated without a charter,<br />
but as enrollment increased from a single student for<br />
the first term to thirty in 1845, the mayor and more than<br />
a thousand citizens sent a petition to the legislature. A<br />
charter was granted to t<strong>his</strong> institution as the Eclectic Medical<br />
Institute of Cincinnati. <strong>The</strong> school, of course, was<br />
vigorously opposed by the regulars,<br />
one of whom was so<br />
satisfied with <strong>his</strong> professional state that he declared, "Medical<br />
science does not need, nor is it susceptible of further<br />
improvement or reform." During the first three years of<br />
existence as the Institute, enrollment was greater than in<br />
any of the schools of the regulars. Attendance for the first<br />
ten years showed a gradual growth, a reflection of the<br />
rapid increase in popular acceptance of Eclecticism. Dr.<br />
Beach lectured at the Institute only one year, 1845-46.<br />
In keeping with the spirit of the times as well as the<br />
place. <strong>The</strong> Eclectic Institute became involved in numerous
193<br />
rounds of faculty bickering and wrangling. In fact, it<br />
would have been remarkable, considering the nature of<br />
Eclecticism, had t<strong>his</strong> not been the case. Drawing for ideas<br />
and materials as the faculty did upon the whole field of<br />
Botanic practice as well as that of the regulars, each instructor<br />
was inclined to become a system unto himself.<br />
One can imagine the complications which might result<br />
from using Eberle's On the <strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Medicine,<br />
a standby of the regulars, and at the same time<br />
including lectures on the elements of homeopathy. Besides<br />
there was the inevitable rivalry which resulted from certain<br />
of the professors' promoting and selling their own<br />
medicines. ^^<br />
Kentucky Eclectics, noting the flounderings of the<br />
Cincinnati Institute, chartered the "American Reform<br />
Medical Institute" at Louisville in 1849 and opened it the<br />
following year. After several terms of "excellent promise,"<br />
with activities which included a publication, the Medical<br />
Era, under Dr. Johnson M. Jordan, t<strong>his</strong> school failed to<br />
develop as the Eclectic center of the West, and closed<br />
rather abruptly.<br />
In addition to the troubles mentioned, a new problem<br />
presented itself at the Cincinnati Institute. Although the<br />
announcement for 1851 Hsted fees at $100 for a full course<br />
of lectures, $15 for graduation, and $5 for demonstration,<br />
the proposal of free lectures was adopted, to the Dean*s<br />
notion, "in accordance with the Free-School movement."<br />
Other Eclectics, somewhat more candid, thought that such<br />
a step might compel the suspension of competing Reformed<br />
colleges and thus leave the field open to the Institute. T<strong>his</strong><br />
would be doubly beneficial; propagation of Eclectic ideas,<br />
as they of the Institute saw them, would be guaranteed,<br />
and also the resultant increased enrollment at the Institute<br />
would yield a larger income through additional extra fees,<br />
and through the sale of the professors' books— an idea<br />
which may sound vaguely familiar to present-day students.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> plan for "free education" met with a storm of protest<br />
from other members of the profession, both irregular
194<br />
and regular, and failed to attract the anticipated increase.<br />
After a few years it was abandoned. (Some years later the<br />
Medical Department of the <strong>University</strong> of Michigan tried<br />
a similar experiment. <strong>The</strong>ir hopes were even higher;<br />
through the adoption of free tuition they anticipated an<br />
annual revenue of $300,000 for the state treasury, and expected<br />
Ann Arbor to eclipse even Philadelphia as a medical<br />
center. Needless to say, t<strong>his</strong>, too, failed.)<br />
Dr. Morrow, whose ability as a practitioner and teacher<br />
of medicine was recognized by <strong>his</strong> contemporaries of even<br />
the regular school, died in 1850. Conditions in <strong>his</strong> institution<br />
did not improve with <strong>his</strong> passing. A faculty reorganization<br />
the next year failed to help much. <strong>The</strong> mildmannered<br />
members resigned one by one, leaving only the<br />
more bellicose, who seemed about equally proficient with<br />
words and fists. Personal animosities, financial mixups, and<br />
professional jealousies resulted in one general melee, with<br />
several smaller fights on the side. When dissatisfaction with<br />
some of the new professors developed among the students.<br />
Dr. L. E. Jones in the involvement criticized Dr. Joseph<br />
Rodes Buchanan. Buchanan, who since Morrow's death<br />
had been head of the school, was not of a disposition to<br />
accept criticism. Personal charge and countercharge flew<br />
thick and fast and the trustees finally expelled Dr. Jones.<br />
Undaunted, he, with Dr. A. H. Baldridge, another former<br />
faculty member, thereupon set up a rival school, the American<br />
Medical College, which, with a faculty of eight, began<br />
instructing an "encouraging attendance" in a two-year<br />
term similar to that of the parent institution. Ironically<br />
enough, the remnants of Jones's new school were, a few<br />
years later, to join Buchanan's new school after Buchanan,<br />
in turn, had been expelled. In 1856-57 the American<br />
Medical College published the American Medical Journal<br />
which then merged with the College Journal of Medical<br />
Science published by the Eclectic College of Medicine. <strong>The</strong><br />
journal ceased in 1859.<br />
<strong>The</strong> main fight at the Institute revolved around Drs.<br />
C. H. Cleaveland and R. S. Newton, leaders of two oppos-
ing factions.<br />
195<br />
Newton was a staunch "Eclectic Concentrations"<br />
man. When Cleaveland made fun of these remedies,<br />
Newton called him a heretic and a wolf in sheep's clothing.<br />
Newton and a colleague, Dr. Zoheth Freeman, got into a<br />
squabble with Dr. Buchanan over the way he ran the<br />
Eclectic Medical Journal, the publication of the school.<br />
In addition, Newton took on Dr. John King, <strong>his</strong> editorial<br />
partner in the recently issued National Dispensatory.<br />
Dr. Cleaveland hoped to get control of the new Board<br />
of Trustees which was to be elected in 1856, but he was<br />
unable to purchase the controlling balance of stock held<br />
by Dr. L. E. Jones. No doubt the Institute, with the resultant<br />
sales of medicines recommended by it or its professors,<br />
was of sufficient financial importance to be worth<br />
fighting for. Lawsuits and injunctions followed, but Dr.<br />
Cleaveland was unable to oust <strong>his</strong> opponents. Remembering<br />
the other nine points of the law, he seized the building<br />
of the school and barricaded every door and window. <strong>The</strong><br />
Newton-Freeman forces attacked and the Cleaveland army<br />
was forced to retire. But not for long, for they rallied and<br />
in a counter attack which lasted two days and two nights<br />
pistols, c<strong>his</strong>els, bludgeons, blunderbusses, and other weapons<br />
were flourished, if not used. "On the principal staircase<br />
Newton stood erect inspiring <strong>his</strong> little host like Leonidas<br />
at <strong>The</strong>rmopylae. Buchanan and Cleaveland were<br />
bravely leading the attack, but each time they were repulsed<br />
by the Spartans under Newton and Freeman. T<strong>his</strong><br />
surely was a case where <strong>doctors</strong> disagreed." <strong>The</strong> "sixpound"<br />
cannon which the defenders had planted in the<br />
hall was too much for the offense to overcome. <strong>The</strong> <strong>his</strong>toric<br />
siege was ended when the mayor and police arrived. Dr.<br />
Cleaveland and <strong>his</strong> legions took up winter quarters in a separate<br />
building, which they declared to be the real Eclectic<br />
Institute. During its life of one term t<strong>his</strong> school graduated<br />
twenty-one students.<br />
In the court decision which came out of quo warranto<br />
proceedings Dr. Newton won. Whereupon Cleaveland,<br />
Buchanan, et at., set up the Eclectic College of Medicine
196<br />
in the same building in which Daniel Drake twenty years<br />
earlier had started <strong>his</strong> college to fight the Medical College<br />
of Ohio. <strong>The</strong> new school had a strong faculty and offered<br />
the Eclectic Institute keen competition. Although it absorbed<br />
Dr. Jones's previously established offshoot, and embarked<br />
upon what seemed to be a successful career of its<br />
own, it rejoined the Institute in 1859.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Institute had up to t<strong>his</strong> time graduated eight hundred<br />
fifty-one students. An important part of the school<br />
had been its clinical department. <strong>The</strong> Civil War brought<br />
confusion and misfortune, but in 1862, when it seemed<br />
definitely headed for the rocks, Dr. John M. Scudder, a<br />
man of marked ability, both medical and executive, took<br />
the school in hand. He said, "Dr. Beach's shoes do not fit<br />
me and I do not know why I should wear Dr. Morrow's<br />
coat if I can get a better one." Scudder was a big enough<br />
man to rise above the usual petty wranglings and personal<br />
jealousies. Besides managing the school in a business-like<br />
way, he found time to publish the Eclectic Practice of<br />
Medicine in 1864, a reference-book on domestic medicine,<br />
and a few years later <strong>The</strong> Principles of Medicine, Diseases<br />
of Children, and several other works. In these books the<br />
organized theory of Eclectic practice was crystallized and<br />
most clearly presented. <strong>The</strong> fundamentals were not materially<br />
different from those of the regulars. For instance,<br />
Scudder believed the proposition that the action of medicines<br />
to be curative must be opposed to the processes of the<br />
diseases to be so obvious that it required no presentation of<br />
the facts in proof. Under Scudder's guidance the Eclectic<br />
Institute became the leading medical college of Cincinnati<br />
in the 1880's.<br />
By the time of the Civil War Eclecticism had travelled<br />
far from its original parentage. Wliile on the one hand,<br />
under the leadership of the Cincinnati Eclectic Institute,<br />
the movement had developed along lines which, if not convergent<br />
with, were at least closely parallel to those of the<br />
regular medical beliefs, on the other hand the disorganized<br />
elements had fanned out into the most heterogeneous group
197<br />
of practitioners of the medical world. From Eclecticism to<br />
eclecticism was but a short step. <strong>The</strong> divergent factions of<br />
About<br />
the Botanies had never been able to get together.<br />
all they had in common was their opposition to the regulars.<br />
Ordinarily none too certain of their chemistry, anatomy, physiology, they were proud of their Botanic orthodoxy—<br />
as was the old doctor who assured the newcomer from a<br />
regular medical college that he never administered any<br />
mineral medicine whatsoever except the iron in the "cast<br />
steel" soap from which he made <strong>his</strong> p<strong>ills</strong>.<br />
Dr. Morrow, following an earlier example of Dr. Beach,<br />
had attempted to organize the various factions of Botanies,<br />
Reformed and otherwise, into a united front against the<br />
common enemy, the regulars. Early in 1841 he tried to<br />
enlist the support of all Botanies in the East and South for<br />
t<strong>his</strong> union, and also for the founding of a National Reformed<br />
Medical <strong>University</strong> at some central point in the<br />
Union, but met with no success. Since much of the opposing<br />
medical legislation in the various states had, by 1845,<br />
been set aside, once again an effort to combine was made,<br />
t<strong>his</strong> time by certain physicians of New York and Pennsylvania.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir cue was immediately taken up by Dr.<br />
Morrow, who opened correspondence with the cults of<br />
reformists. Meanwhile, an additional stimulus had been<br />
supplied by the creation in 1846 of their rivals' American<br />
Medical Association. <strong>The</strong> first convention of the Reformed<br />
practitioners of medicine met in Cincinnati in May, 1848,<br />
and effected a permanent organization, the American<br />
Eclectic Medical Association, which, as the National<br />
Eclectic Medical Association, continued until 1857 when<br />
internal troubles caused its<br />
dissolution.<br />
Simultaneously an attempt was made to organize Reformed<br />
state societies. <strong>The</strong> Ohio Eclectic Medical Society<br />
was formed in 1858 and held regular meetings until the<br />
Civil War. <strong>The</strong>re was also the Union Society of Clermont<br />
County and the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Society, which<br />
became the Cincinnati Academy of Eclectic Medicine. In<br />
Indiana the Eclectic Medical Association was organized at
198<br />
Indianapolis in 1857, and in the same year a society was<br />
begun in Marshall, Illinois. Most of these organizations soon<br />
went out of existence, to be revived or replaced in the new<br />
upsurge of Eclecticism in the postwar years. Organizations<br />
in Michigan and Wisconsin did not come into being until<br />
t<strong>his</strong> later period. In 1870 the American Eclectic Medical<br />
Association was revived.<br />
By 1890 organizations existed in<br />
most of the states and in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition<br />
in Chicago a sort of World Congress of Eclectic Physicians<br />
and Surgeons was held. That the Eclectic or Reformed<br />
practice lasted longer than any of the groups<br />
formed after the demise of pure Thomsonianism may be<br />
directly traced to the quality and training of its leaders.<br />
In medicine, as in politics and religion, the period of the<br />
1840's and '50's was one of flux and transition. It is impossible<br />
to keep track of the sc<strong>his</strong>ms, mergings, and crossingsover.<br />
Thomsonians not only became Eclectics, Physio-<br />
Medicals, and Botanies; some joined the regulars. In the<br />
records of the regular medical schools of the period are<br />
occasional references to applicants who had previously<br />
practiced the "steam and puke" system. Others went over<br />
to the water-cure system and a number took up homeopathy.<br />
On the other hand, so severe at times was the competition<br />
of "the People's Doctors" that the regular <strong>doctors</strong><br />
were forced to adopt their methods or lose their own practice.<br />
Far more regulars became irregulars than one would<br />
realize from reading the formal medical <strong>his</strong>tories of the<br />
period. Perhaps the eclectics had the right idea after all;<br />
they were the true democrats in the field of medicine.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y pretented to be familiar with all the irregular systems,<br />
and a really elastic eclectic included the regular<br />
system as well. <strong>The</strong> patient— or if he were too ill to vote,<br />
<strong>his</strong> friends or relatives— was permitted to name <strong>his</strong> own<br />
poison; the eclectic would administer it. Considering the<br />
variety of choices— since hydropathy, vitapathy, homeopathy,<br />
and other practices soon had their foUowings—one<br />
is forced to admit the versatility of these accommodating<br />
<strong>doctors</strong>.
MEDICAL ODDS: ANIMA<br />
TO ZOOTES<br />
CHAPTER V<br />
^'Tbey shall have -mysteries—aye precious stuff<br />
For knaves to thrive by— mysteries enough;<br />
Dark tangled doctrines, dark as fraud can weave,<br />
Which simple votaries shall on trust receive,<br />
While craftier feign belief, till they believe.'^<br />
Jjy 1840 the Middle West had developed a distinct spirit<br />
of regional self-consciousness, proud of its <strong>his</strong>tory, its way<br />
of life, and its prospects; resentful of outside criticism and<br />
distrustful of eastern and European ideas and products,<br />
whether in government, education, or special brands of<br />
religion. T<strong>his</strong> attitude did little, however, to limit experience<br />
to the merely provincial when it came to disease and<br />
medical systems. In these matters the regional taste proved<br />
both cosmopolitan and omniverous. Whatever the West<br />
took, whether Asiatic cholera or European homeopathy, it<br />
took hard.<br />
<strong>The</strong> system of homeopathy was formulated by young<br />
Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann. His studies in<br />
the medical schools of Vienna and Leipsic, followed by
200<br />
Erlangen, from which he was graduated in<br />
1779, had not<br />
instilled in him a complete respect for the profession as it<br />
then existed. <strong>The</strong> discrepancies and contradictions within<br />
the theory and practice of medicine which he encountered<br />
after <strong>his</strong> graduation furthered these doubts. Regardless of<br />
the merits or demerits of the medical system which he<br />
estabhshed, due credit must be given him for <strong>his</strong> early<br />
advanced thoughts of reform: he insisted that drugs must<br />
be pure to be effective; he disapproved of purging and<br />
venesection; he demanded decent treatment for the insane,<br />
cleanliness in obstetrical cases, quarantine and public sanitation,<br />
preventive medicine, pure air, proper clothing, and<br />
hygiene. In these beliefs he was more than half a century<br />
ahead of <strong>his</strong> time. His, however, was merely another of<br />
those voices crying in the wilderness. Failing to get the<br />
cooperation of fellow <strong>doctors</strong> in establishing these reforms,<br />
he voluntarily retired from the profession to give <strong>his</strong> time<br />
to research.<br />
Hahnemann's first idea of the homeopathic rule of practice<br />
is said to have occurred to him while translating Dr.<br />
CuUen's Materia Medica in 1790, but not until 1796 did he<br />
offer these beginnings to the public in the form of an "Essay<br />
a New Principle." In t<strong>his</strong> he advocated a partial application—<br />
that is, to some chronic diseases— of the results<br />
of <strong>his</strong> experimentation in ascertaining the effect of different<br />
medicines upon persons in good health.<br />
Further experimentation as to the effects of a multitude<br />
of inorganic substances upon himself as well as other subjects<br />
gradually gave definite shape to a system of medicine<br />
new and somewhat remote from <strong>his</strong> earlier concept of<br />
a reformed medicine. He developed three basic tenets:<br />
1. Diseases are curable by particular drugs which produce<br />
similar pathologic effects upon the healthy body; that is,<br />
cinchona would cure malaria because it would produce in<br />
a person not infected with the disease symptoms comparable<br />
to those exhibited by a malarial patient. 2. <strong>The</strong> dynamic<br />
effect of drugs is increased by giving them in very<br />
small doses, diluted even to a decillionth of the original
201<br />
strength. 3. Chronic diseases are manifestations of a suppressed<br />
"Psora," which in society not too pohte might be<br />
called simply an itch.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se were not original ideas. Paracelsus ( 1490-1 541)<br />
had propounded the theory of "simiha simiKbus curantur"<br />
— like <strong>cures</strong> like — but had directed <strong>his</strong> attack toward the<br />
causes of disease rather than toward the symptoms exhibited,<br />
as did Hahnemann. Even earlier, Hippocrates and<br />
Galen had advocated the use of "Helleboris which causes<br />
mania, to cure mania," and the alchemists had anticipated<br />
<strong>his</strong> dilution theory by several hundred years when they set<br />
forth their belief in the efficacy of small dosage, such as the<br />
use of a maximum of three drops of gold or tincture of<br />
gold to be taken in beer or wine to cure the most serious<br />
of illnesses.^<br />
By 1805, when Hahnemann published <strong>his</strong><br />
Medicine of<br />
Experience^ all <strong>his</strong> earlier restrictions were abandoned, and<br />
homeopathy was definitely launched as a system unlimited<br />
i<br />
•<br />
in applicability. By means of an extensive program of s<br />
writing and lecturing, the attention of the general public<br />
rather than that of the medical profession was focused ^<br />
upon <strong>his</strong> developing theory. T<strong>his</strong> program was further<br />
popularized by the admission to <strong>his</strong> classes of students •<br />
without previous medical training. <strong>The</strong> publication in 1 8 1<br />
J<br />
of the homeopathic bible, Organon der Kationellen Heil-<br />
\<br />
•<br />
kunde,^ supplem.ented in 1811 by Pure Materia Medica,<br />
embodied the fundamentals as conceived by Hahnemann.<br />
[<br />
A distinctive technique was developed during Hahne- i<br />
mann's sixteen years of experimentation. Since "Every<br />
j<br />
medicine exhibits peculiar actions on the human frame, !<br />
which are not produced in exactly<br />
•<br />
the same manner by<br />
any other medicinal substance of a different kind ....<br />
medicines on which depend man's life and death, disease<br />
and health, must be thoroughly and most carefully distinguished<br />
from one another, and for t<strong>his</strong> purpose tested by<br />
careful, pure experiments on the healthy body for the purpose<br />
of ascertaining their powers and real effects, in order<br />
to obtain an accurate knowledge of them, and to enable us
202<br />
to avoid any mistake in their employment in diseases, for<br />
it is only by correct selection of them that the greatest of<br />
all earthly blessings, the health of the body and of the mind<br />
can be rapidly and permanently restored."<br />
<strong>The</strong> substance on trial— cinchona, mercury, or any of<br />
the sixty-two others enumerated in <strong>his</strong> Materia Medica—<br />
was given in common or minute doses to a healthy person.<br />
Every possible sensation, each movement of mind or body<br />
exhibited by the subject within succeeding hours or days<br />
he thought was unquestionably a result of the drug administered,<br />
"even though the experimenter had observed, a<br />
considerable time previously, the spontaneous occurrence<br />
of similar phenomena in himself." <strong>The</strong>se were carefully<br />
recorded, preferably in the exact words of the person being<br />
examined. From the records "everything that is conjectural,<br />
all that is mere assertion or imaginary should be<br />
strictly excluded; everything should be the pure language<br />
of nature carefully and honestly interrogated."<br />
It was necessary for the examiner to have "especial circumspection,<br />
tact, knowledge of human nature, caution<br />
in conducting the inquiry and patience in an eminent degree."<br />
Furthermore, the person being examined "must<br />
during the whole time of the experiment avoid all overexertion<br />
of mind and body, all sorts of dissipation and<br />
disturbing passions; he should have no urgent business to<br />
distract <strong>his</strong> attention; he must devote himself to careful<br />
self-observation and not be disturbed whilst so engaged; <strong>his</strong><br />
body must be in what is for him a good state of health, and<br />
he must possess a sufficient amount of intelligence to be<br />
able to express and describe <strong>his</strong> sensations in accurate<br />
terms." He must be "a person who is a lover of truth, temperate<br />
in all respects, of delicate feelings, and who can<br />
direct the most minute attention to <strong>his</strong> sensations ."<br />
. . .<br />
In the proving, medicines should be given to both males<br />
and females "in order also to reveal the alterations of the<br />
health they produce in the sexual sphere," and to subjects<br />
"varying in their corporeal and mental constitution."<br />
Hahnemann thought it best for subjects to assume various
203<br />
positions in order to determine the possibilities of the medicines;<br />
that is, whether the postural changes affected the<br />
symptoms exhibited.<br />
After thorough and painstaking research he found that<br />
the least powerful of <strong>his</strong> dosages excited ninety-seven<br />
symptoms, a negligible number in comparison to the 1,491<br />
effected by the most potent. Another careful researcher<br />
produced upon himself 1,349 symptoms by administering<br />
one-decillionth of a grain of salt. A child in Gloucester<br />
County, Virginia, years later, however, lacking these powers<br />
of discernment, unknown to the family, consumed at<br />
one sitting, $8 worth of medicine, the entire family supply<br />
for a year, and failed to notice any symptoms at all.<br />
Acetate of lime, according to Hahnemann, produced in<br />
the subject, "after stooping some time, a sense of painful<br />
weight about the head upon resuming the erect posture; an<br />
itching, tickling sensation at the outer edge of the palm of<br />
;<br />
the left hand, which obliges the person to scratch." Muri- !<br />
atic acid caused catarrah, sighing, pimples, and "after hav-<br />
ing written a long time with the back a little bent over,<br />
violent pains in the back and shoulder-blades, as If from \<br />
strain; dreams which are not remembered, — disposition<br />
"<br />
to mental dejection, — wakefulness before and after midnight."<br />
More than fifteen years later t<strong>his</strong> procedure of ob-<br />
serving and reporting was still being continued, as <strong>his</strong> I<br />
Treatise on Chronic Diseases, 1828, shows: "After dinner,<br />
disposition to sleep; the patient winks"; then nine days ;<br />
after taking remedy: "After dinner, prostration and feel-<br />
ing of weakness." <strong>The</strong> remedy proposed was oyster shell.<br />
Hahnemann finally concluded that whichever medicine<br />
was found to "contain In the symptoms observed from its<br />
use the greatest similarity to the totality of the symptoms<br />
of a given natural disease will and must be the most suitable,<br />
the most certain homeopathic remedy for the disease."<br />
He believed that the action of a single dose did not fully<br />
display itself In some cases until twenty-four or even thirty<br />
days after It had been taken ; since Its good effects were not<br />
exhausted until towards the fortieth or fiftieth day, it<br />
j<br />
•<br />
J<br />
•<br />
i<br />
I<br />
'<br />
I
204<br />
would be absurd and injurious to administer a new remedy<br />
during t<strong>his</strong> period. <strong>The</strong> true homeopath never mixed <strong>his</strong><br />
drinks.<br />
<strong>The</strong> proper drug for use in treatment of any disease once<br />
having been ascertained, the next problem confronting the<br />
doctor would quite logically be that of determining the<br />
proper amount of the medicine to be used. Here again<br />
Hahnemann carefully evolved another principle of <strong>his</strong> system.<br />
Attenuation and dilution, according to the second<br />
homeopathic essential, were necessary to bring into play<br />
a most effective manner the curative properties of the<br />
in<br />
drug to be used: "the best dose of the properly selected<br />
always the very smallest one in one of the high<br />
remedy is<br />
potencies (x), as well for chronic as for acute diseases."<br />
To attenuate the drug, he advised that:<br />
"A grain of the substance, if it is solid, a drop if it is<br />
liquid, is to be added to about a third part of one hundred<br />
grains of sugar of milk in an unglazed porcelain capsule<br />
which has had the polish removed from the lower part of<br />
its cavity by rubbing it with wet sand; they are to be<br />
mingled for an instant with a bone or horn spatula, and<br />
then rubbed together for six minutes; then the mass is to<br />
be scraped together from the mortar and pestle, which is<br />
to take four minutes; then to be again rubbed for six minutes.<br />
Four minutes are then to be devoted to scraping the<br />
powder into a heap, and the second third of the hundred<br />
grains of sugar of milk to be added. <strong>The</strong>n they are to be<br />
stirred an instant and rubbed six minutes,— again to be<br />
scraped together four minutes and forcibly rubbed six, once<br />
more scraped for four minutes, when the last third of the<br />
hundred grains of sugar of milk is to be added and mingled<br />
by stirring with the spatula, six minutes of forcible rubbing,<br />
four of scraping together, and six more (positively the<br />
last six) of rubbing, finish t<strong>his</strong> part of the process.<br />
"Every grain of t<strong>his</strong> powder contains the hundredth of<br />
a grain of the medicinal substance mingled with the sugar<br />
of milk. If, therefore, a grain of the powder just prepared<br />
is mingled with another hundred grains of sugar of milk.
205<br />
and the process just described repeated, we shall have a<br />
powder of which every grain contains the hundredth of<br />
the hundredth, or the ten thousandth part of a grain of the<br />
medicinal substance. Repeat the same process with the<br />
same quantity of fresh sugar of milk, and every grain of<br />
your powder will contain the millionth of a grain of the<br />
medicinal substance. When the powder is of t<strong>his</strong> strength,<br />
it is ready to employ in the further solutions and dilutions<br />
to be made use of in practice."<br />
Once the drug had been attenuated, there remained yet,<br />
before it could be used, the triturition or dilution of it.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> process was to be accomplished by combining it with<br />
a liquid, preferably alcohol. A grain of the attenuated<br />
powder was to be covered over with a hundred drops of<br />
alcohol; the container was to be slowly turned for a few<br />
minutes until the powder dissolved, then two shakes given<br />
it. Hahnemann said: "A long experience and multiplied<br />
observations upon the sick lead me within the last few<br />
years to prefer giving only two shakes to medicinal liquids,<br />
whereas I formerly used to give ten." <strong>The</strong> more the vial<br />
was shaken the more highly "potentized" the medicine became.<br />
Also the effect of the dose increased with each addition<br />
of the fluid in which it was dissolved; hence the preparer<br />
of the concoction had to exercise extreme care lest<br />
he create, unwittingly, a medicine too powerful for even<br />
the strongest of patients, not to mention <strong>his</strong> more sensitive<br />
sufferers. For experimental purpose Hahnemann once "dissolved<br />
a grain of soda in half an ounce of water mixed with<br />
alcohol in a phial, which was thereby filled two-thirds full,<br />
and shook t<strong>his</strong> solution continuously for half an hour, and<br />
t<strong>his</strong> fluid was in potency and energy equal to the thirtieth<br />
development of power."<br />
<strong>The</strong> process of dilution was carried on in the same manner<br />
as that of attenuation. Each successive dilution with<br />
alcohol reduced the medicine to a hundredth part of the<br />
quantity of that which preceded it. In t<strong>his</strong> way the dilution<br />
of the original millionth of a grain of medicine contained<br />
in a grain of powder could be carried successfully
206<br />
to the billionth, trillionth, quadrillionth, quintillionth, and<br />
very often much higher fractional divisions. Dr. Oliver<br />
Wendell Holmes once figured that if a pharmacist were<br />
to utilize a whole drop or grain of medicine, in compounding<br />
he would use enough alcohol to fill a million lakes two<br />
miles in circumference, yielding a supply for every individual<br />
of the whole human family, past and present, with<br />
more than five billion doses each. <strong>The</strong>se figures were computed<br />
for only "Potency IV," or the twelfth dilution.<br />
Hahnemann later concluded that the thirtieth dilution was<br />
the most efficacious, though some substances were diluted<br />
to the "x" degree. <strong>The</strong> power of a "Potency" increased with<br />
each three dilutions. <strong>The</strong> first dilution contained l/lOOth<br />
of a drop or grain of the original substance, the second<br />
1/1 0,000th, and the third l/l, 000,000th or "Potency I";<br />
hence "Potency II," after the sixth dilution would contain<br />
l/l,000,000,000th and "Potency IV" 1/1,000,000,-<br />
000,000,000th of the medicine. One u^nkind critic of the<br />
dilution principle of the Hahnemann system said it was<br />
about as sensible as to expect even a German to be able to<br />
detect beer at the mouth of the River Spree after a glass<br />
had been spilled several miles upstream. Almost as thin was<br />
the recipe recommended in Indiana in 1850: hang two<br />
starved pigeons in the kitchen window so that their shadow<br />
falls into a ten-gallon pot on the stove. After the shadow<br />
has boiled ten hours over a slow fire, give to the patient<br />
one drop of the mixture in a glass of water every ten days.<br />
Hahnemann found that one sugar globule the size of a<br />
poppy seed, soaked in the diluted medicine (about one<br />
three-hundredth of a drop), when laid upon the tongue<br />
was often a very satisfactory treatment, and "If it be necessary,<br />
in the case of a very sensitive patient, to employ the<br />
smallest possible dose and to bring about the most rapid<br />
result, one single olfaction merely will suffice." In fact,<br />
he discovered that smelling first with one nostril then the<br />
other was efficacious, even when the patient had no sense<br />
of smell. In Cincinnati years later Professor Joseph Rodes<br />
Buchanan found that symptoms and results were produced
207<br />
by holding tlie medicinal substances in the hand, carefullyshielded<br />
from any direct physical contact. If in any case<br />
the patient failed to show improvement, the doctor could<br />
be fairly sure that the dose administered had not been small<br />
enough. A dosage homeopathically selected could never be<br />
so small "that it shall not be stronger than the natural disease."<br />
Since the ultimate dilution theoretically would make<br />
a deadly poison of any medicine, one wonders what would<br />
be the effect of taking none at all.<br />
Strange substances as well as quantities were included in<br />
the Hahnemann materia medica, such as lachryma fiUa, the<br />
tears of a young girl in great grief and suffering, to be<br />
used for great grief and suffering in young girls; flavus<br />
hides, the yellow ray of the spectrum; extracts of three<br />
kinds of pedicuU, or lice; extracts of all the body glands<br />
then known.<br />
<strong>The</strong> third great tenet of homeopathy, though a result of<br />
;<br />
twelve years of labor by its founder, was abandoned almost !<br />
immediately, even by confirmed followers of the system.<br />
According to it, "Psora" was a miasm, or evil spirit, which<br />
pervaded the body and ultimately manifested itself on the<br />
t<br />
body surface in the form of an eruption or itch. Diseases<br />
of excesses— of too much food, lack of food, severe physi- .<br />
cal impressions, and the like—were regarded as "generally<br />
[<br />
only a transient explosion of the latent psora." External<br />
;<br />
treatment was thus dangerous, since local symptoms were<br />
»<br />
not the true source of trouble and might be cured while<br />
the psora yet existed as dangerous as ever. Even cancers,<br />
Hahnemann thought, should not be removed.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se were the fundamentals of homeopathy, a mixture<br />
of the obvious and the ludicrous. Ridiculous as were certain<br />
of its principles, it must be conceded that some of its<br />
methods were sound, such as the scientific or experimental<br />
approach. Its widespread acceptance indicated that the<br />
ailing public was eager for any system which provided an<br />
escape from the heroic treatments then in use by the regulars.<br />
If, as it was said, "the patients of the homeopaths died<br />
of the disease, and the patients of the allopaths died of the
208<br />
cure," things were in a bad way. Homeopathy gave an<br />
impetus to reform and improvement in the field of regular<br />
medicine.<br />
<strong>The</strong> doctrine of homeopathy was introduced into New<br />
York in 1825 by Hans Burch Gram, a Bostonian Dane,<br />
who had adopted it while studying medicine in Copenhagen.<br />
So great was <strong>his</strong> enthusiasm for t<strong>his</strong> science of<br />
littles that soon he, too, was busy gaining disciples for<br />
Hahnemann, even from among the regulars. Ferdinand L.<br />
Wilsey is credited with being, in 1826, the first convert to<br />
t<strong>his</strong> theory in the United States. <strong>The</strong> effectiveness of the<br />
simple <strong>cures</strong> of the homeopaths, particularly in those cases<br />
in which the regulars had failed, loomed large in the public<br />
mind. Dr. Gram's successful treatment, by the use of a<br />
mustard-seed-sized pellet of sugar, of a patient suffering<br />
from a toe set at right angles to <strong>his</strong> foot because of a contracted<br />
tendon, was only one example of the many which<br />
were recorded. Evidently the homeopaths were regarded<br />
as a threat to the medical profession, for they were barred<br />
from membership in the county medical societies, hence<br />
deprived of the opportunity of receiving license to practice.<br />
Meanwhile troubles and unrest in Saxony had led to the<br />
migration of a group of physicians to Northampton County,<br />
Pennsylvania. <strong>The</strong>se men, influenced by books and<br />
medicines sent to one of them by a pupil of Hahnemann,<br />
and perhaps also by the homeopathic accomplishments with<br />
which they came into contact, formed the nucleus for the<br />
first of the American homeopathic schools, the Allentown<br />
Academy. T<strong>his</strong> school, chartered in 1836, was organized<br />
by Dr. Constantine Hering, one of Hahnemann's ablest<br />
converts, who had returned from the <strong>University</strong> of Leipsic.<br />
Later, in 1848, Hering established the Hahnemann Medical<br />
College and Hospital at Philadelphia, with requirements<br />
for graduation practically identical with those of the older<br />
regular medical schools.<br />
Hering added to homeopathy <strong>his</strong> own twist known as<br />
"isopathy." By t<strong>his</strong> practice disease should be treated by<br />
products of the disease; that is, tapeworm heads should be
—<br />
209<br />
given those suffering<br />
from tapeworm, gonorrheal pus to<br />
those suffering from gonorrhea. <strong>The</strong> <strong>pioneer</strong>s, incidentally,<br />
had been practicing t<strong>his</strong> theory via the jug long before it<br />
was given scientific formulation by <strong>doctors</strong> or economists.<br />
It was also in 1836 that the first of many homeopathic<br />
practitioners in the Middle West, a Dr. Cope, was reported<br />
near Plymouth in Richland County, Ohio. Dr. Cope, whose<br />
treatment consisted of a single dose, repeated in two weeks<br />
in "radical" cases, was reputed to have had remarkable <strong>cures</strong><br />
and a large practice. Soon a German doctor began practicing<br />
in Delaware County, Ohio, giving to <strong>his</strong> patients<br />
"very little p<strong>ills</strong>," and in typhoid cases administering one<br />
dose, then returning at the end of a week "to see how it<br />
was working." Cincinnati's first homeopathic doctor was<br />
Dr. Wilhelm Sturm, a personal student of Hahnemann,<br />
who set up shop there in 1839. He is said to have acquired<br />
a large practice and much fame throughout the Ohio<br />
Valley. <strong>The</strong> next year one of the founders of the Allentown<br />
Academy, Dr. Joseph V. Pulte, came to Cincinnati.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tremendous growth of homeopathy in Ohio between<br />
1840 and 1856 may well have been largely due to the<br />
collapse of Thomsonianism. <strong>The</strong> new system took hold<br />
most strongly in those areas where Thomsonianism had<br />
been most firmly established in the decade of the 1830's<br />
eastern Massachusetts, southern Vermont, the eastern part<br />
of the Mohawk Valley in New York, eastern Pennsylvania,<br />
north, central, and southwestern Ohio, and southern<br />
Michigan.^ <strong>The</strong>re are believers, however, who maintain<br />
own merits.^<br />
that homeopathy stood on its<br />
As in the earlier case of the Thomsonians, much of the<br />
popularity of homeopathy arose as a result of its seemingly<br />
successful coping with the dread cholera which again swept<br />
over the region in epidemic proportions in 1849. Drs.<br />
Pulte and Benjamin Ehrmann, of Cincinnati, published<br />
claims for their treatment of 1,116 patients, of whom<br />
sixty to seventy were in a state of deep collapse when first<br />
reporting, with only thirty-five deaths. Whereupon Dr.<br />
Samuel A. Latta, editor of the Methodist Expositor, issued
210<br />
a special brochure, "<strong>The</strong> Pretense of Homeopathy," in<br />
which he claimed gross misrepresentation in these figures.<br />
After the homeopaths replied, a city committee carried on<br />
an investigation which vindicated them of certain of the<br />
charges, which the editor was asked to correct. During the<br />
course of the epidemic some of the practitioners were<br />
brought into court by the health board for failure to file<br />
proper reports, but were not convicted, since the board<br />
was adjudged to be illegally organized. <strong>The</strong> publicity<br />
obtained in these and subsequent attacks served to place the<br />
homeopaths before the people. Newspapers of the period<br />
were filled with the controversy, pro and con. <strong>The</strong> free<br />
dispensary for cholera victims established in Cincinnati<br />
by Edwin C. Wetherell and Dr. F. A. Davis did much<br />
to further the cause of Hahnemann in Ohio. In 1855 Dr.<br />
Pulte, now nationally known, was the leading speaker at<br />
the Buffalo meeting of the American Institute of Homeopathy,<br />
the centennial celebration of Hahnemann's birth.<br />
To Dr. Storm Rosa, of Painesville, was given the honor<br />
of being the first homeopathic teacher in the West when<br />
in 1849 he was called to occupy a chair in the Cincinnati<br />
Eclectic Institute. So convincing was <strong>his</strong> course of two<br />
lectures that about one- third of <strong>his</strong> Eclectic students and<br />
even two faculty members, Drs. Benjamin Hill and<br />
H. P. Gatchell, were converted. At the end of the term six<br />
students received both homeopathic and Eclectic diplomas.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Eclectics, fearing further complications, abolished the<br />
chair the next year.<br />
Among the aims of the Homeopathic Society of Cincinnati<br />
which came into existence t<strong>his</strong> same year were: "to<br />
petition the General Assembly of 1849 for an act establishing<br />
a homeopathic college; to promulgate the lectures<br />
delivered by Dr. Rosa; to organize a college in Cleveland<br />
in 1850."<br />
<strong>The</strong> last of these objectives was achieved in the autumn<br />
of 1850 when the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College<br />
was opened, with an attendance of sixty students the first<br />
year. As with regulars and Eclectics before them, the
211<br />
methods of obtaining anatomical materials brought down<br />
upon thejTi the ill will and violence of the townspeople,<br />
who almost wrecked the school. By 1852 the homeopaths<br />
were back in the good graces of the citizens, and some of<br />
the townsfolk even made contributions for the reestablishment<br />
of the school in a new location. <strong>The</strong> addition of<br />
leading <strong>doctors</strong> to the faculty, including Dr. Pulte of<br />
Cincinnati, aided in placing the school on a more solid<br />
foundation. In 1855-56 the school became the Western<br />
College of Homeopathy.<br />
By 1851 homeopatic converts in various other centers<br />
of the state—Norwalk, Elyria, Pomeroy, Steubenville,<br />
Newark, Urbana—had become so numerous that the need<br />
was felt for a state society; a meeting accordingly was<br />
called in Columbus for the purpose of organizing one. Between<br />
1849 and 18 52 the Homeopathic Society of Cincinnati<br />
reported a membership of one thousand. One homeopathic<br />
physician. Dr. Daniel H. Beckwith, was said to have<br />
"rung more silver doorbells in Cleveland than any other<br />
doctor." Believers had been present in sufficient numbers<br />
to justify the opening in 1845 of a homeopathic pharmacy<br />
in Cincinnati and one the following year in Cleveland.<br />
In 1856 was instituted the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital.<br />
Among the books on homeopathy by Ohio <strong>doctors</strong> those<br />
by Dr. Pulte were outstanding. His Homeopathic Domestic<br />
Physician, published in 1850, and Woman's Medical Guide,<br />
in 1853, were well known. <strong>The</strong> former was reprinted in<br />
1852 with anatomical plates and "Special Hydropathic<br />
directions." <strong>The</strong> Cincinnati Journal of Homeopathy,<br />
begun in 1851, had a brief career, as did Pulte and<br />
Gatchell's American Magazine of Hmneopathy and<br />
Hydropathy, started the next year.<br />
A number of homeopaths were practicing in Kentucky<br />
in the late 1830's. When in 1840 Dr. I. G. Rosenstein<br />
published <strong>his</strong> <strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Homeopathy, at<br />
Louisville, he received letters of approbation from several<br />
local <strong>doctors</strong>, but he stated that "the whole west and south
212<br />
is still a barren field." Drawing upon the various works of<br />
Hahnemann, Rau, Torelle,<br />
and other European homeopaths,<br />
Rosenstein presented a concise and clear exposition<br />
of homeopathic theory and practice. He emphasized that<br />
medicines possessed no direct healing power in themselves.<br />
By administering a medicine which would produce in the<br />
diseased organs an "affection similar to the complaint,"<br />
— the complaint would temporarily be increased "homeopathic<br />
aggravation"—but the reaction of the organs, supported<br />
by the consequent opposite secondary effect of the<br />
remedy, would remove the disease. "<strong>The</strong> original disease<br />
then yields, because it is overpowered by the artificial<br />
disease caused by the remedies: and t<strong>his</strong>, on the discontinuance<br />
of the medicines, is, in turn, speedily overcome<br />
by the powers of the constitution. . . . <strong>The</strong> more violent<br />
a disease, the less is the susceptibility of the system, for<br />
heterogeneous, and the greater it is for homogeneous influences."<br />
Guidance was given to young practitioners in the classification,<br />
diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Symptoms<br />
affecting the patients' moral tendencies and intellectual<br />
faculties were to be heeded as well as those connected with<br />
"<strong>his</strong> organic economy." <strong>The</strong> section on "Regimen"—diet,<br />
bathing, exercise, and fresh air—contained much sound<br />
advice. "How many pains, and dollars, and disappointments,<br />
might have been saved, if patients, instead of going<br />
to Dr. Bolus and Dr. Pill,<br />
had only taken, three times a<br />
day, half an ounce of common sense with quantum sufficient<br />
of gymnastics." Especially were girls likely to get<br />
insufficient exercise. Exercise could even overcome the<br />
hypo. Walking, dancing, skating, and riding were recommended.<br />
<strong>The</strong> chapter on "Drugs and their Abuses" well set forth<br />
the case against them; pharniaco-mania in itself might<br />
almost be classified as a disease. Rather exceptional was<br />
the author's comment on bleeding:<br />
^'Bleeding, impartiality constrains me to say, cannot<br />
always be dispensed with, especialy in inflammations of
213<br />
the lungs and heart; but in most cases we fear that nervous<br />
irritation is mistaken for inflammation, in which bleeding<br />
and purging very often destroys life."<br />
Warning was given against the use of blisters, setons,<br />
and cauteries, especially on young children and in certain<br />
diseases. "<strong>The</strong> time is passed when a judicious practitioner<br />
can ever think of such a thing as doing any good by a prolonged<br />
suppuration." At the end of the book was a set<br />
of instructions by which patients at a distance, afflicted<br />
with chronic diseases, might communicate their cases to a<br />
homeopathic physician by letter. No cure was guaranteed.<br />
Rosenstein's book antedated Dr. Pulte's first book by ten<br />
years. How widely it circulated is not known. Like many<br />
of the books on domestic medicine, it was not rigidly confined<br />
to one system. Whatever the difference of opinion<br />
regarding Rosenstein's facts and theories, anyone familiar<br />
with the old-fashioned country schoolroom in early spring<br />
will be inclined to agree that 1/481,000,000,000,000,-<br />
000,000th of a cubic inch of asafoetida still smells like<br />
asafoetida. It is doubtful whether even the atom-smasher<br />
can change that.<br />
Homeopathic growth in Illinois radiated from St. Louis<br />
in the south and from Chicago in the north. <strong>The</strong> practice<br />
sprang up in the former region in the middle and late<br />
1840's. In the northern area (present Cook County),<br />
where in 1857-59 forty per cent of all the homeopaths<br />
in the world were said to have been located, the movement<br />
owed much of its success to Dr. George Elias Shipman,<br />
reputed to have been "without doubt the ablest defender<br />
and scholar the cause of homeopathy ever had in the West."<br />
He championed the cause by publishing in <strong>his</strong> Northwestern<br />
Journal of Homeopathia (1848-52), October,<br />
1850, the following letter and enclosures:<br />
"DR. SHIPMAN:<br />
During the session of 1849 and 1850 1 attended a course<br />
of lectures at the Rush Medical College in Chicago, and<br />
was desirous of attending the ensuing course, and receiving
214<br />
the honors of the College, as I should have been entitled<br />
to do had none but the ordinary tests of qualification been<br />
applied to me. But wishing to have the matter fully understood<br />
previous to securing tickets for another course, I<br />
addressed the following to the Secretary of the faculty,<br />
and received the accompaning reply:<br />
DR. N. S.<br />
ST. CHARLES, III, September 12, 1850.<br />
DAVIS—<br />
Sir: I am a homeopat<strong>his</strong>t from a conviction of the truth<br />
of the principles and the efficacy of the practice of homeopathia.<br />
With these views, will you graduate me if I comply<br />
with the ordinary requisitions of the faculty<br />
Yours, etc. M. DANIEL COE.<br />
CHICAGO, September 16, 1850.<br />
MR. DANIEL COE—<br />
Dear Sir: I am directed to inform you that the faculty of<br />
Rush Medical College will not recommend you to the<br />
trustees for a degree so long as they have any reason to<br />
suppose that you entertain the doctrines, and intend to<br />
trifle with human life on the principles you avow in your<br />
letter. To do so otherwise would involve both parties in<br />
the grossest inconsistency.<br />
Very respectfully yours,<br />
N. S. DAVIS, Secretary to the Faculty of Rush Medical<br />
College:'<br />
Believing in the strength of union. Dr. Shipman at a<br />
preliminary meeting in June, 1851, introduced a resolution<br />
which proposed the formation of a western homeopathic<br />
association of "Those present . . . who have conformed<br />
to the existing medical institutions of the country, or who<br />
have been engaged in the practice of medicine five years<br />
(being avowed believers in, and practitioners of the homoeopathy)<br />
or who shall have passed an examination before<br />
the committee." <strong>The</strong> resolution was adopted the next day<br />
and the Western Institute of Homeopathy came into being.
One of the major desires<br />
215<br />
of the Chicago homeopaths<br />
was to establish a school for the propagation of the faith.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first attempt proved abortive, for the charter of the<br />
proposed institution which was sent to the legislature in<br />
1853 was carelessly mislaid by the representative. Failure<br />
to locate the missing document led to the formulation of<br />
a new one, in the law ofSce, says tradition, of A. Lincoln.<br />
In January, 1855, the Hahnemann Medical College was<br />
incorporated, but no faculty was organized until five years<br />
later.<br />
Coinciding with the efforts of the homeopaths to establish<br />
the school was the foundation of other institutions<br />
necessary for their practice. Obviously a special pharmacy<br />
for the dispensation of homeopathic dosages was an essential.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first one was established in 1844 at the office of<br />
Dr. David Sheppard Smith. Ten years later a hospital was<br />
created by popular subscription secured by Dr. Shipman<br />
after a gift of $1000 annually for its maintenance had been<br />
promised by a Mrs. H. Knight. Financial difficulties forced<br />
the suspension of the hospital in 1857. During the twentyeight<br />
months of its existence, according to its reports, t<strong>his</strong><br />
institution set an enviable record of only nine deaths among<br />
the three hundred twenty-one patients admitted.<br />
In 1857 began the open hostilities between the homeopaths<br />
and the regulars. Trouble arose as the result of a<br />
petition to the Common Council by leading Chicago citizens<br />
who requested use of a portion of the newly created City<br />
Hospital for the treatment of patients according to the<br />
homeopathic school of practice. <strong>The</strong> regulars objected<br />
strenuously, both to the ruling of the Council which<br />
allotted the use of one-fourth of the hospital to the homeopaths,<br />
and to the name "Allopaths"—hterally "other<br />
diseases"— given to them to distinguish them from their<br />
rivals. A war of pamphlets ensued in which everyone<br />
denounced everyone else. <strong>The</strong> board took refuge in inaction,<br />
and as a consequence the City Hospital remained<br />
unprovided with furniture as well as physicians. Eventually<br />
the regulars indirectly won the struggle by obtaining
216<br />
a lease on the building in<br />
1858. <strong>The</strong>y established a public<br />
institution, cared for the county poor, and gave clinical<br />
demonstrations, principally to students of Rush Medical<br />
College. In 1863 the building was confiscated by the<br />
Federal Government and was used as a hospital for the<br />
treatment of eye and ear cases among soldiers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first homeopathic dispensary was opened in 1859;<br />
in the course of three months one hundred thirty-five<br />
patients were treated. Later its successor was placed in the<br />
general charge of the Hahnemann Medical College. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
the first course of clinical lectures on homeopathy delivered<br />
in the Northwest was given.<br />
Doubtless much of the success achieved by homeopathy<br />
in Illinois during t<strong>his</strong> early period can be ascribed to its<br />
leadership. <strong>The</strong> work of Shipman has already been<br />
described. David S. Smith, a convert from the regulars,<br />
became a national figure and the "Father of Western<br />
Homeopathy." Another proselyte, John Taylor Temple,<br />
later founded the St. Louis School of Homeopathy, and was<br />
the first to perform an autopsy and give medico-legal<br />
testimony in Chicago.<br />
Homeopathy made its appearance in Michigan with<br />
Dr. S. S. Hall, who was listed in 1843 as the first of the<br />
followers of Hahnemann in Detroit. Homeopaths were<br />
reported in various localities during the next ten years.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir sucess in the cholera epidemic of 1849 did much to<br />
increase the popularity of the movement. Although their<br />
numbers were small, their aggressiveness was unlimited.<br />
In 1851 the homeopathic <strong>doctors</strong> of the state sucessfuUy<br />
petitioned the legislature to repeal all restrictive legislation.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir request to have a homeopathic professor added to the<br />
faculty of the state university, however, was denied. In<br />
1855 a motion was presented to the courts for a mandamus<br />
to compel the Board of Regents of the <strong>University</strong> of Michigan<br />
to appoint a professor of homeopathy or to show cause,<br />
but the court held that it would not issue in a case where<br />
the public good did not require it. It went further and<br />
enumerated as reasons why it would not interfere, even
217<br />
though it had power: there was no pressing necessity<br />
apparent, delay in appointment had not been unreasonable,<br />
and interference would be disastrous. <strong>The</strong> agitation for<br />
a professorship at the university continued for a quarter<br />
of a century; success finally came in 1875.<br />
In spite of the lack of legal sanction, perhaps spurred<br />
to greater activity because of its absence, homeopathy<br />
gained practitioners and followers. One doctor reported<br />
in 1862 that for fifteen years <strong>his</strong> office prescriptions had<br />
averaged seven thousand annually and that he had had<br />
from thirty to forty daily professional visits. T<strong>his</strong> was an<br />
exceptional case, for in pre-war Michigan homeopaths<br />
formed only a small percentage of the total number of<br />
practicing physicians.<br />
In Indiana homeopaths offered little real competition to<br />
the regulars in the pre-Civil War period; there are only<br />
a few scattered references to early practitioners there. Dr.<br />
Samuel G. Mitchell, of Indianapolis, in 1837 became a<br />
convert to the system of similars and littles as a result of<br />
business trips to New York. "He tried to practice it here,<br />
but it was not popular at that time. People did not think<br />
they were getting enough for their money," reported a<br />
local <strong>his</strong>torian. Dr. E. J. Ehrman, who came from Pennsylvania<br />
to Evansville in 1845, was the <strong>pioneer</strong> homeopath<br />
there, with an extensive following among the German<br />
settlers. After an early struggle against the existing prejudices<br />
the success of <strong>his</strong> <strong>cures</strong> had become so well known<br />
that ten years later he hired an assistant. Dr. R. G. Coe,<br />
"Homeopathic Physician and Surgeon," in the Western<br />
Sun of July 31, 1857, advertised "A sure specific for Ch<strong>ills</strong><br />
and Fever, and all other bilious diseases. Dyspepsia cured;<br />
all diseases cured without the use of calomel, quinine, or<br />
any other poisonous drugs." Regulars treated these practitioners<br />
with contempt. Said one, "Well, whosoever<br />
employeth a homeopathic doctor and is holpen thereby<br />
hath confessed hysterics already unto condemnation."<br />
Instances of their incompetence were played up prominently<br />
by orthodox practitioners.
218<br />
In the Cincinnati Lancet and Observer, 1858, one Fort<br />
Wayne doctor reported the case of a patient who had lost<br />
<strong>his</strong> eye by inflammation under homeopathic attention, and<br />
another doctor related <strong>his</strong> experience on an emergency<br />
obstetrical case in which the patient, after having been<br />
informed by the homeopath in charge that birth was not<br />
possible, was delivered of not one child but twins. Still<br />
another regular criticized: "It is a marvelous mystery what<br />
can be the content of those cases [chests containing homeopathic<br />
medicines] daily advertised at prices varying from<br />
$10 to $15 each, accompanied by books of directions,<br />
which cost from twenty-five cents to four dollars." One<br />
packet of nostrums was even advertised for $25. He continued:<br />
"<strong>The</strong> success of homeopathic practitioners is entirely<br />
due to nervous folks, whose only ailment is laziness;<br />
and to dyspeptic people, who suffer from wrong feeding."<br />
<strong>The</strong> homeopaths, said he, were like the numbers of their<br />
doses: one figure of little value followed by a perfect battalion<br />
of ciphers. Still, t<strong>his</strong> caustic critic credited one of<br />
<strong>his</strong> enemies with curing a hypochondriac who imagined<br />
himself a goose and, procuring an egg, proceeded to "set."<br />
" Tike <strong>cures</strong> like' ... it takes a goose to cure a goose!<br />
He ordered a pair of feather breeches to be worn by the<br />
patient and a dozen eggs. <strong>The</strong> spell and the eggs were<br />
broken together, and the patient was himself again. Very<br />
eggstraordinary, was it not"<br />
A Wisconsin doctor said of homeopathy, "He who<br />
actually believes it, is an ignoramus. He who does not<br />
believe it and practices it is dishonest." Another regular<br />
charged: <strong>The</strong>y "amuse their patients with inert doses of<br />
medicines; they depend wholly upon rest or exercise as<br />
the case may be, dietary restrictions, and upon the natural<br />
resources of the system." Perhaps t<strong>his</strong> was not as devastating<br />
as it was intended. <strong>The</strong> "therapeutic nihilism" of the<br />
homeopaths did its part in forcing drugs to prove themselves.<br />
* sC- *<br />
One of the rivals of homeopathy for public favor was
219<br />
hydropathy. Although hydropathy did not attack the West<br />
with such virulence as it hit in the East, nevertheless, it<br />
became prevalent in scattered localities. In England in the<br />
early 1700's had appeared a book on Psycbrolousia, or the<br />
History of Cold Bathing, both Ancient and Modern; in<br />
Silesia in 1738 J. S. Hahn published <strong>The</strong> Healing Virtues<br />
of Cold Water. It was a Silesian peasant, Vincent Priesnitz,<br />
who, having cured <strong>his</strong> broken ribs by cold water treatment,<br />
about 1829 originated the modern hydropathic, or watercure<br />
system, which in the 1840's spread to England and the<br />
United States. Hydropathy was known in America much<br />
earlier, however, as is witnessed by the publication at<br />
Philadelphia in 1723 of the American edition of John<br />
Smith's <strong>The</strong> Curiosities of Common Water, followed two<br />
years later by <strong>The</strong> Curiosities of Common Water: or the<br />
Advantages thereof in Preventing Cholera.<br />
Hydropathy was popularized in the United States<br />
largely through the efforts of Dr. Joel Shew, who in <strong>his</strong><br />
establishment in New York City developed a distinctive<br />
technique for treatment. Water, he found, was an<br />
extremely versatile and potent substance. It could be given<br />
as treatment orally for hiccups, toothache, skin eruptions,<br />
palpitation of the heart, and fatigue. Swallowing ice lumps<br />
was excellent in cases of gastric haemorrhage. His patients<br />
were cautioned against drinking water unthinkingly, lest<br />
dangerous results occur. <strong>The</strong> use of t<strong>his</strong> liquid as an enema<br />
was highly recommended.<br />
Water functioned best as a healing agent when it was<br />
administered gradually through the skin, by the process<br />
known as "transudation." Although there were different<br />
ways of effecting such a treatment, the use of the wet sheet<br />
was the generally approved technique. A sheet of cotton<br />
or linen, dipped in cold water, was spread on several thick<br />
woolen blankets. An attendant first wound the sheet<br />
around the patient, then the blankets, and secured all with<br />
large pins and tapes. Over the whole was thrown a fat<br />
feather bed. <strong>The</strong> patient remained in <strong>his</strong> cocoon from<br />
twenty-five minutes to several hours, depending upon the
220<br />
seriousness of <strong>his</strong> condition. <strong>The</strong> wet sheet was useful for<br />
reducing all fevers, for toning up the body generally, and<br />
for whitening the skin of the ladies. For patients to whom<br />
such a treatment was impracticable or impossible, the wet<br />
dress, a gown with extra wide sleeves, was suggested, though<br />
the excellent results obtained from the wet sheet could<br />
not be guaranteed in such circumstances. Patients in either<br />
case were warned against drinking water.<br />
Almost all persons using the water cure resorted to the<br />
water girdle. T<strong>his</strong> was made of toweling three yards long,<br />
soaked every three hours in cold water, and worn for varying<br />
periods during the day. In extreme cases, it was kept on<br />
for twenty-four hours continuously. <strong>The</strong> weak-lunged<br />
patients wore wet jackets above their girdles, and for local<br />
infections and inflammations the compress, in addition,<br />
was found to be helpful.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there were the baths. <strong>The</strong> shower was the most<br />
powerful and not generally advised. Even the milder<br />
douche was to be used with greatest caution, and the<br />
patient should keep in a crouching position throughout,<br />
for water falling on the head could be extremely dangerous.<br />
<strong>The</strong> head-bath was found excellent for treatment of<br />
deafness, loss of taste or smell, delirium tremens, and<br />
inflammation of the brain. Prolonged insanity was best<br />
treated by the plunge or cold-air bath. <strong>The</strong> most popular<br />
was the sitz bath, which employed water just deep enough<br />
to cover the abdomen. Only the part of the patient actually<br />
immersed was bare; otherwise he was clothed. With <strong>his</strong><br />
head, trunk, arms, and legs at strange angles, the patient<br />
stayed in the sitz from twenty to thirty minutes, or as long<br />
as <strong>his</strong> acrobatic talents permitted.<br />
<strong>The</strong> baths were at first given out-of-doors in natural<br />
streams of running water, cascades, and waterfalls, but<br />
soon Dr. Shew set up inside rooms and vessels which simulated<br />
these conditions. <strong>The</strong>re were other varieties of baths:<br />
the towel bath (t<strong>his</strong>. Dr. Shew thought, was the neatest<br />
of all, as the skillful wielder of the towel could bathe completely<br />
from a single quart of water without doing any
221<br />
damage to the carpet); the dripping sheet with which<br />
one or more attendants scrubbed the victim vigorously for<br />
five minutes; the sponge; and the bath by aflfusion.<br />
Truly much water had flowed since earlier years when<br />
the bath tub had been opposed by ministers, <strong>doctors</strong>, and<br />
good Americans as being immoral, dangerous hygienically,<br />
and foreign and un-American.<br />
Water curists over the country were kept up to date<br />
on the latest treatment by means of various journals: Dr.<br />
Shew's Water Cure Journal and Herald of Reform and <strong>his</strong><br />
Water Cure Manual, which he reedited and reissued every<br />
year; Mrs. Shew's Water Cure for Ladies; hydropathic<br />
cook books, and similar publications.<br />
<strong>The</strong> West had no elaborate and luxurious sylvan bathing<br />
centers. In 1849 Dr. H. T. Seeley established a water cure<br />
hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he catered to<br />
a number of clients; another was opened at Centerville,<br />
Indiana, "the first in the State." Later several were organized<br />
in Ohio—combination community settlements, rest<br />
havens, and modern bath sanitoria. At Columbus in 1857<br />
W. Shepard, M. D., advertised a "Water Cure and Infirmary<br />
for Ladies Exclusively. . . . <strong>The</strong> subscriber continues<br />
to treat at <strong>his</strong> Institution, near Columbus, Ohio, invalid<br />
females exclusively. Such as are confined to the bed will<br />
be taken, and no pay called for unless and until they are<br />
and wait upon<br />
enabled to walk, go up and down stairs,<br />
.'*<br />
themselves with care and safety. Open at all seasons. . .<br />
Although hydropathy was supposed to be a bit complicated<br />
for home practice, the prosaic fact seems to be that<br />
most natives continued to get their treatments there, or<br />
in the nearby "crick." Some regular <strong>doctors</strong> who added<br />
the wet-sheet technique, especially in the treatment of<br />
fevers, and others who emphasized the importance of<br />
cleanliness in the handling of their cases were accused of<br />
being hydropat<strong>his</strong>ts. <strong>The</strong> whole subject lent itself to facetious<br />
treatment, and the newspapers had a lot of fun with<br />
it. Many of the hydropat<strong>his</strong>ts of the Ohio-Michigan region
222<br />
gradually took up Grahamism and amalgamated their<br />
system with it.<br />
Dr. Sylvester Graham, a temperance lecturer in the East<br />
in 1830, began to observe that intemperance was not confined<br />
to the use of liquid nourishment. By 1835 he had<br />
made the startling discovery that whereas alcoholism was<br />
causing the death of only fifty thousand people annually,<br />
folly in dress brought destruction to eighty thousand, and<br />
downright gluttony doomed one hundred thousand. To<br />
counteract these existing evils he advocated a hygiene cult,<br />
based on the belief that if the <strong>doctors</strong> were unable to find<br />
a way for the salvation of mankind it was high time the<br />
laity was doing something about it. T<strong>his</strong> redemption was<br />
to be brought about by vegetarianism, the use of whole<br />
wheat products, Graham bread and crackers, bathing,<br />
fresh air, sunlight, dress reform, sex hygiene, and exercise.<br />
In order that man be made aware of these means at <strong>his</strong><br />
disposal Dr. Graham held lectures, at some of which he<br />
had more than two thousand people in attendance. He<br />
wrote and sponsored books, pamphlets, health papers,<br />
Ladies' Physiological Reform Societies, and Men's Graham<br />
boarding houses which catered to <strong>his</strong> followers by providing<br />
Graham bread and three baths per week. His lectures,<br />
plus many pages of testimonials, were published in Boston<br />
in 1839 as Lectures on the Science of Hwnan Health.<br />
Undoubtedly t<strong>his</strong> movement contributed much toward the<br />
development of health and physical education. Although<br />
it centered in the East (Boston and New York), it<br />
attracted much attention in western papers. Even though<br />
it resulted in no important midwestern medical cult, many<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> in time advocated its principles. <strong>The</strong>re is no evidence<br />
that the proposal of some of the New England<br />
extremists in 1832, to found a "Society for the Suppression<br />
of Eating," received any considerable backing in the West.<br />
Though phrenology can hardly be classified as a system<br />
of medicine— perhaps it was a disease—it did get involved
223<br />
with medical practice. <strong>The</strong> hypothesis that traits of character<br />
can be determined by the configuration of the skull<br />
was first set forth by the Austrians John Caspar Spurzheim<br />
and Francois Joseph Gall. <strong>The</strong>se men were expelled from<br />
Vienna in 1802 by order of the Austrian government, after<br />
their teachings had been adjudged dangerous to religion and<br />
morality. For five years they did well in Berlin, then went<br />
to Paris, which they liked so well that they sought to<br />
settle there. Napoleon referred their request to the French<br />
Institute, which reported adversely, and the "Doctors"<br />
were sent on their travels. London, Edinburgh, and Dublin,<br />
having read the report, offered a poor welcome, so the<br />
travellers returned to Berlin. <strong>The</strong> Bourbon restoration<br />
made them again acceptable for a time in Paris; here Gall<br />
died in 1827 in comparative obscurity. Spurzheim was<br />
given a new lease on life by an invitation to visit the<br />
United States.<br />
Ten years before Spurzheim's arrival phrenology had<br />
been brought straight to the Middle West by Dr. Charles<br />
Caldwell of Transylvania's Medical Department, who in<br />
1821 had gone to Europe with $10,000 to buy books and<br />
equipment for the school. In Europe he had taken up<br />
phrenology and upon <strong>his</strong> return began promoting it from<br />
Lexington, Louisville, and Cincinnati. At one of <strong>his</strong> lectures,<br />
according to Dr. Samuel Gross, he said, "<strong>The</strong>re are<br />
only three great heads in the United States, one is that of<br />
Daniel Webster, another that of Henry Clay, and the last,"<br />
pointing to <strong>his</strong> own, "modesty prevents me from mentioning."<br />
In December, 1822, the Lexington Kentucky<br />
Reporter advertised a lecture by Professor Rafinesque: "A<br />
discourse by request on Phraenology, Craniology and the<br />
Analysis of the Human Mind, on t<strong>his</strong> evening at 7 o'clock<br />
in the Medical Room. Admission Fifty Cents. Tickets may<br />
be had of Mr. McNitt, at the lecture room and at Mr.<br />
Deveins." <strong>The</strong> same year Cincinnati papers carried notices<br />
of lectures by "Dr. Cranium." Soon the newspapers were<br />
splattered with advertisements, testimonials, and notices<br />
of meetings. Caldwell, "<strong>The</strong> Zealous Phrenologist of
224<br />
America" and "<strong>The</strong> American Spurzheim," published <strong>his</strong><br />
Elements of Phrenology at Lexington in 1824; a second<br />
edition appeared in 1827. Many people agreed with Sir<br />
Charles Bell, the distinguished Edinburgh anatomist, that<br />
phrenology was "<strong>The</strong> most extravagant departure from all<br />
legitimate modes of reasoning . . . ever encountered."<br />
But Caldwell rose to its defense against all criticism.^<br />
In 1839, at Springfield, Illinois, and elsewhere, a Doctor<br />
Sewall advertised <strong>his</strong> lectures with a column of testimonials<br />
from such men as Daniel Webster, John McLean, John<br />
Sergeant, and John Quincy Adams. Adams's testimonial<br />
was something of a boomerang to the phrenologist; he<br />
classified phrenology with alchemy, judicial astrology, and<br />
augury. Like Cicero, he could not understand how two<br />
augurs could meet and look each other in. the face without<br />
laughing.<br />
<strong>The</strong> average citizen probably got most of <strong>his</strong> phrenology<br />
by way of the almanacs, which often—in addition to<br />
signs of the zodiac, sundry household hints, and remedies<br />
—contained the phrenological chart with full explanation,<br />
as well as busts of some of the famous followers of the<br />
"science."<br />
Phrenology in the United States received a big impetus<br />
with Spurzheim's arrival in 1832. Yale received him with<br />
open arms and put him on the commencement program.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re he dissected the brain of a child and felt the bumps<br />
of distinguished alumni, faculty, criminals, and lunatics<br />
at all times being able to tell which was which. T<strong>his</strong><br />
remarkable feat won him the friendship and following<br />
of Governor Trumbull and President Day, as well as the<br />
support of Benjamin Silliman, the eminent scientist. At<br />
Harvard he performed before Phi Beta Kappas, and began<br />
a course of lectures for the Medical faculty. Only the State<br />
House was large enough to accommodate <strong>his</strong> popular lectures.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> beautiful start was cut short by Spurzheim's<br />
death; having survived the cholera, he died from a gastronomic<br />
upset. Refusing to be cheated out of their find,<br />
Harvard removed the heart and brain of "the Prophet"
225<br />
to have and to hold. <strong>The</strong>y also kept the skull. <strong>The</strong> rest of<br />
Spurzheim went to the cemetery, escorted by presidents,<br />
deans, ministers, and citizens.<br />
Princeton, somewhat piqued at having failed<br />
to get in<br />
on the premier, looked up Spurzheim's record and found<br />
it wanting. Besides being something of a fraud, he was not<br />
straight on the hereafter. <strong>The</strong>se findings were duly reported<br />
in the North American. Much fun was had at an Amherst<br />
debate where Henry Ward Beecher first demolished, then<br />
defended phrenology. When <strong>his</strong> friend Orson Squire Fowler<br />
found that Beecher's bumps of Power of Thought, Eloquence,<br />
Splendor of Diction, and Benevolence were far<br />
more impressive than those on any of the charts, the boys<br />
were converted. Beecher went into the ministry, where he<br />
never ceased to pay <strong>his</strong> respects to phrenology, and Fowler<br />
and <strong>his</strong> brother went on a phrenological tour of New<br />
England and New York. Lectures, demonstrations, and<br />
private consultations taught the art to any and all who<br />
had the price. Parents could feel the bumps of Destructiveness<br />
and Combativeness on their children's heads and<br />
prepare accordingly. Old maids were told how to make<br />
themselves attractive to men, and housewives how to<br />
select good servants. Readings of the crania of the students<br />
of Mrs. Willard's Female Academy at Troy and of the<br />
Siamese twins at New York were good publicity, but it<br />
was the inspiration of the Fowler brothers to visit Washington<br />
and read the heads of the truly great that made<br />
phrenology a national fad.<br />
Soon Phrenological Cabinets were set up in Philadelphia<br />
and New York; Boston stayed in the race by virtue of<br />
Spurzheim's pickled brain and the phrenological charts of<br />
Dr. Samuel Howe. "Professors" were instructing and entertaining<br />
the people from one end of the country to the<br />
other. Best known of these was the Scotsman George<br />
Combe, who spent two years, 1838-40, lecturing in the<br />
eastern cities. He came West only to see Dr. Caldwell<br />
and William Henry Harrison, but <strong>his</strong> lectures were followed<br />
by western papers. His two-volume report on <strong>his</strong>
226<br />
travels, Notes on the United States of North America<br />
During a Phrenological Visit, is better known for its<br />
description of the country than for its phrenological data.<br />
For twenty years phrenology flourished. Serious followers<br />
expanded its possibilities to the control of personality<br />
—even crime might be eliminated when the science was<br />
mastered—but the general populace was not entirely<br />
convinced. In 1849 "A Skeptic" was advising, ''Go everyone<br />
and get your heads examined."® Many did.<br />
<strong>The</strong> story of mesmerism, or animal magnetism, is somewhat<br />
more exciting as well as complicated. Anton Mesmer<br />
had been banned from Vienna earlier than Spurzheim, had<br />
found refuge in Germany, and had then gone to Paris,<br />
where <strong>his</strong> seances and researches in high circles aroused<br />
considerable interest. Benjamin Franklin concurred with<br />
French scientists when they reported that mesmerism was<br />
a fraud. T<strong>his</strong> did not bring about the demise of the new<br />
art, however, for many famous Frenchmen, including<br />
Lafayette and Charles X, kept in active touch with it.<br />
Mesmerism came to the United States in installments.<br />
Charles Poyen, a Martinique Frenchman, cooperating with<br />
John Greenleaf Whittier in New England in the mid- 183 O's,<br />
found that he had something in <strong>his</strong> system more exciting<br />
than an essay against slavery. He claimed to have been<br />
cured of a lung affliction by magnetic treatment when a<br />
medical student in Paris. After a few years of hobnobbing<br />
with New England prominents, he became both a "Marquis"<br />
and a "Doctor"; numbered among <strong>his</strong> friends,<br />
patrons, and supporters were John Neal, Silas Wright, and<br />
President Francis Wayland of Brown <strong>University</strong>. Even<br />
Col. William L. Stone, of the New York Commercial<br />
Advertiser, whose crusade against mesmerism had supplanted<br />
<strong>his</strong> expose of monastic derelictions in Montreal,<br />
became a convert. His brother-in-law. President Wayland,<br />
and the faculty of Brown pronounced mesmerism a more<br />
important science than phrenology. When Mrs. Cora<br />
Ogden Mowatt, "Nineteenth Century Glamour Girl,"<br />
began converting hundreds by her beauty and demonstra-
227<br />
tions, mesmerism was well on its road to crowding out<br />
phrenology.^<br />
In the popular mind phrenology, mesmerism or animal<br />
magnetism, faith-healing, and the galvanism of Mr. Samuel<br />
F. B. Morse were all confused. Western newspapers in the<br />
1840's were filled with strange goings-on. "Professors"<br />
made the legs of dead frogs jump, communicated with<br />
persons in adjoining rooms, "read minds," and put people<br />
into trances in which they sometimes remembered seeing<br />
things which they had never seen before. Dr. Phineas<br />
Parkhurst Quimby, who in New England was treating <strong>his</strong><br />
patients by trance therapeutics, had <strong>his</strong> imitators in the<br />
West. Quimby discovered that there was present in man<br />
a "higher power" or principle of which man himself was<br />
only a medium. Disease itself, according to Quimby, was<br />
only an erroneous belief. If one would just think himself<br />
in perfect health, he would be in perfect health. On the<br />
one hand Quimby's ideas furnished the basis for one of<br />
America's most important inventions in religion, and on<br />
the other supplied material for the quacks and eclectics<br />
in the borderline field between medicine and psychology.<br />
As with other oddities, mesmerism, which appealed particularly<br />
to mystics and those with leanings toward the<br />
supernatural, contained a quantum of validity. It employed<br />
the power of suggestion and stimulated the development<br />
of hypnosis, both of which play a part in modern medicine.<br />
On the other hand it offered a perfect opportunity for the<br />
Cagliostros and Perkinses, with their seances and metallic<br />
tractors,<br />
to bedizzen the public. Perhaps the fun offered<br />
outweighed any possibilities of damage. In 1837, when the<br />
Columbus <strong>The</strong>atre ended its program with the laughable<br />
farce "Animal Magnetism," a good time was had by all.<br />
It remained for Joseph Rodes Buchanan, energetic and<br />
original son of Kentucky, to tie together phrenology,<br />
animal magnetism, and medicine, into an incoherent system,<br />
which at one time or another he labeled<br />
anthropology, and therapeutic sarcognomy.<br />
neurology,
228<br />
Buchanan's father was a professor of medicine at Transylvania.<br />
At the age of six, according to <strong>his</strong> biographer,<br />
young Buchanan began studying geometry, astronomy,<br />
<strong>his</strong>tory, and French; at eleven he took on sociology; a<br />
year later he started the study of law. For a while after the<br />
death of <strong>his</strong> father he was a printer and teacher, but when<br />
<strong>his</strong> health failed, he began the study of medicine at the<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Louisville, from which he was graduated in<br />
1842. <strong>The</strong> same year appeared <strong>his</strong> pamphlet of one hundred<br />
twenty pages, entitled Sketches of Buchanan's Discoveries<br />
in Neurology.<br />
From 1846 to 1856 Buchanan was one of the main spirits<br />
in the Cincinnati Eclectic Institute, where he held the chair<br />
of the Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence<br />
and, for one year, 1848, was president of the National<br />
Eclectic Medical Association. During the Civil War he<br />
manufactured salt in Syracuse; from 1867 to 1881 he was<br />
professor of physiology in the Eclectic Medical College of<br />
New York. He later opened the American <strong>University</strong> in<br />
Boston, founded the Buchanan Anthropological Society,<br />
and edited Buchanajt's Journal of Man. He finally moved<br />
to California, where he died in 1899.<br />
Although Buchanan published Otitlines of Lectures an<br />
the Neurological Systefn of Anthropology (Cincinnati,<br />
1854) and <strong>The</strong>rapeutic Sarcognoiny (Boston, 1884),* the<br />
essentials of <strong>his</strong> system were outlined in the pamphlet published<br />
in the year he was graduated from medical school.<br />
Few medical students have figured so prominently in<br />
national discussion at the beginning of their careers. Eastern<br />
newspapers such as the Newark Daily Advertiser^ New<br />
York Watchman, and Washington Globe, as well as Boston,<br />
Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Louisville papers, carried<br />
letters, editorials, and news accounts. Buchanan stated that<br />
in a few minutes he had ascertained more nearly the true<br />
physiology than had hithertofore been acquired by all the<br />
labors of all the physiologists and pathologists who had<br />
ever worked on the subject. While the ink of t<strong>his</strong> statement<br />
was yet wet, he contemplated it; though he viewed
229<br />
it with strangeness, he still believed it to be but "a naked<br />
statement of a portion of the facts."<br />
Buchanan accepted the phrenological doctrine that every<br />
part of the brain maintained a particular relation to the<br />
body, that every portion of the body had a specific relation<br />
to the brain, and that through the brain all phenomena<br />
of life are modified and controlled. But whereas Spurzheim<br />
and Gall failed definitely to locate the bumps of the<br />
external senses, Buchanan provided all these, and demonstrated<br />
ninety-one distinct functions. Early in <strong>his</strong> experiments<br />
he discovered a means by which he was able in some<br />
instances to control both the minds and bodies of <strong>his</strong><br />
patients. By manual manipulation or the use of "a galvanic<br />
or galvanoid fluid" he perfected the technique of exciting<br />
at will any portion of the brain and consequently any<br />
organ of the body.<br />
"Thus I make my subjects alternately laugh and weep;<br />
reason profoundly of moral truths, and then, without<br />
any reason, draw the fist to strike; express the deepest<br />
humility, or self-sufficiency and levity; sit for hours with<br />
the greatest patience, or leap up with passionate restlessness;<br />
express the finest moral sentiments, or assume the<br />
manners and feelings of the miser and thief; indulge in<br />
eating, and drink strong liquor, or assume a moral dignity,<br />
despise sensuality and speak of food with loathing; feel the<br />
most exalted moral and religious sentiments, or indulge<br />
in levity with an inclination to be vulgar; concentrate the<br />
thoughts, by an irresistible impulse, upon some objects<br />
before them, or scatter them in utter confusion and wandering;<br />
extend their reminiscence back to their earliest<br />
days, reviving the memory of almost forgotten circumstances<br />
of infantile life, or recall them to the present, and<br />
reach on to the future, without the power of looking back<br />
to the past; reason, moralize, inquire, or feel an utter<br />
vacuity of intellect, and show an almost idiotic expression<br />
of countenance; rise with a stern, piercing eye, in the<br />
attitude of angry defiance, loll in the most indolent good<br />
nature, or sink under an oppressive humility, with eyes
230<br />
continually downcast obey with reverence every request<br />
that I may make, or become impatient, contradictory,<br />
and indignant, without any reason which did not exist<br />
during their humility; display a monomania of calculation,<br />
their whole attention being engrossed in calculating every<br />
thing which can be counted—the number of their steps,<br />
the stripes of the carpet, the ke^^s of the piano, or whatever<br />
attracts their attention; and, when the influence is changed,<br />
suddenly suspend their counting and refuse to proceed,<br />
however they may be entreated."<br />
Among the specific therapeutic effects produced were<br />
lengthening and shortening the range of vision, including<br />
restoration of partial vision to a person six years totally<br />
blind; inducement of drowsiness and sleep; relief of partial<br />
deafness; increase of sense of touch in either hand; increase<br />
of the electricity of the system, "causing the fingers and<br />
toes to stand apart like the filaments of a feather"; stimulation<br />
of the sense of smell in both nostrils or singly; cure<br />
of all cases of toothache; increase of muscular strength, or<br />
great debility and clumsiness; modifications of the circulation;<br />
relief of dyspeptic pains in twenty minutes; urination<br />
"produced sometimes in three—sometimes in fifteen minutes";<br />
relief of mental dullness; and "general invigoration<br />
and reanimation of the constitution."<br />
Since "phrenology" signified merely the science of the<br />
mind, Buchanan had to find a better name for <strong>his</strong> revolutionary<br />
system. As "anthropology" was sufficently comprehensive,<br />
but not sufficiently specific, and "cerebrology,"<br />
though sufficiently specific, was not sufficiently comprehensive,<br />
he therefore lighted on "neurology" as sufficiently<br />
both. Among the fourteen general laws of neurology which<br />
followed from the basic principle that the brain governs<br />
every corporeal function were the following:<br />
"<strong>The</strong> functions of the brain are indefinitely subdivisible,<br />
and are arranged harmoniously in accordance with the<br />
laws of the 'sympathy of contiguity' and the laws of<br />
antagonism.
231<br />
"<strong>The</strong> various sympathies o£ the viscera, and the various<br />
concentrations of morbid phenomena in disease, may be<br />
explained by the positions and sympathies of the various<br />
cerebral organs. Physiological sympathy is chiefly the effect<br />
of the contiguity and the antagonism of cerebral organs.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> nervous or cerebral influence, or fluid, is radiated<br />
from the brain to the pathognomic lines of the organs and<br />
is also efficiently conducted by the human hand. To demonstrate<br />
the independent existence and transmissibility of a<br />
nervous fluid, establishes an important point in Physiology.<br />
I have often performed a very simple experiment, by which<br />
it may be clearly established. By taking hold of a metallic<br />
rod, (knife, pair of scissors, poker, or whatever happens to<br />
be convenient.) we may transmit the nervous fluid through<br />
t<strong>his</strong> conducting medium, and produce striking effects upon<br />
the person who holds it by the other extremity. <strong>The</strong> subject<br />
should be of an impressible constitution, and should keep<br />
the arms relaxed, while the operator grasps the rod firmly,<br />
making some muscular exertion. In a few minutes, something<br />
like an electric aura is felt, passing up the arm, and<br />
it becomes gradually benumbed from the hand to the<br />
shoulder. If continued, the influence is diffused over the<br />
whole system. I have mentioned t<strong>his</strong> experiment to others,<br />
who have repeatedly performed it with entire success.<br />
"T<strong>his</strong> influence is susceptible of being transmitted from<br />
one person to another of the proper susceptibility; and in<br />
some cases the action of all the intellectual and affective<br />
organs may be thus transmitted, reproducing in the subject,<br />
the sensations, emotions, and thoughts of the operator.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> transmission may be made either through the hand,<br />
or by direct radiation from the head.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> phenomena of Animal Magnetism, are nothing<br />
more than peculiar displays of the cerebral functions, and<br />
of the laws of the nervous fluid which are established by<br />
Neurology."<br />
<strong>The</strong> medical profession, thought Buchanan, stuck too<br />
rigidly to mere material and chemical forces, to the neglect<br />
of the psychic. "Alas, if the whole tale could be told of the
232<br />
destruction of health and Hfe by false and narrow medical<br />
theories, it would rival the horrors of war." <strong>The</strong>rapeutic<br />
Sarcognomy, "a knowledge of the flesh ... of the physiological<br />
and psychological parts which belong to each<br />
part of the body in health, in excitement and in disease,<br />
... an understanding of the correlation of soul, brain and<br />
body" covered all. Life is a Spiritual Power; all Life comes<br />
from INFLUX; food, a lower influx, is subordinate to the<br />
higher influx of the Spirit. Love and Life are correlative.<br />
Health in a negative sense is freedom from injurious and<br />
disturbing influence; positively it means the preponderance<br />
of the vital, which resists injuries, over Sensibility and<br />
Excitability, which succumb. <strong>The</strong> seat of health or normal<br />
perfection lies at the shoulder blades, or "posterior region<br />
of the chest." On a clear night it should be protected<br />
against the planetary interspaces with which it is constantly<br />
exchanging radiation.<br />
Since therapeutic operation on body, brain, and soul<br />
was not simple, elaborate charts and definite instructions<br />
were provided. "Refreshing dispersive passes" with the<br />
hands could do much to keep the patient under the influence<br />
of the upper zone of the body and brain—sometimes<br />
even restore harmony between discordant husbands and<br />
wives.<br />
"If the patient has any selfish, morose or gloomy qualities,<br />
or is lacking in the enjoyment of kindly emotions and<br />
elevated views of duty, the hands should be applied on the<br />
upper surface of the shoulder and the chest as far down<br />
as the nipple, the effect of which will be soothing and<br />
pleasant as<br />
well as beneficial to <strong>his</strong> moral nature, and will<br />
assist in the restoration of health. T<strong>his</strong> is the remedy for<br />
bad temper, selfishness, gloom, and domestic discord.<br />
"If the patient is nervous, restless or melancholic, one<br />
hand may be placed in the armpit at the region of Cheerfulness,<br />
while the other is on Health, or both may be<br />
applied at Cheerfulness."<br />
Or a battery and current might be used, with one pole<br />
placed on the site of Health and the other at the spot need-
233<br />
ing stimulus.<br />
Medicine even could be used by soaking it<br />
in a sponge, applying the sponge, and sending the current<br />
through it. Decision as to the respective merits of the<br />
Buchanan and Doc Carter <strong>cures</strong> for hypo are left to the<br />
reader.<br />
But all t<strong>his</strong> was merely the lower form of treatment;<br />
electricity itself was only an adjunct. <strong>The</strong> higher treatment<br />
lay in the nervauric and psychic power, through which in<br />
many cases the operator could affect the patient with<br />
therapeutic influences, independent of physical contact.<br />
"To what extent the mere presence of the healer may be<br />
a substitute for all other healing agencies depends upon<br />
<strong>his</strong> personal endowments." He would have to enter the sick<br />
room in a state of glowing health, never in a state of<br />
hunger, fatigue, or depression; otherwise he would absorb<br />
the malaria of the sick chamber and the nervauric emanations<br />
of the patient, and lose power. Ozone would destroy<br />
the malaria of human transpiration and a "congenial stimulant"<br />
would exalt <strong>his</strong> powers. Linen clothing should not<br />
be worn: it was too good a conductor; silk and wool<br />
better conserved the nervaura of the healer; best of all<br />
was a silk cap.<br />
Ordinarily patients were more impressionable when lying<br />
down. Sex, habits, education, and cranial development were<br />
also influencing factors. "<strong>The</strong> most perfect and interesting<br />
exhibitions of Impressibility occur among the most lovely<br />
and charming people"; those in love responded particularly<br />
well. But those with proud, heroic, and combative elements<br />
of character were antagonistic to impressibility and tended<br />
to destroy it. "To pour forth hope, joy, love or zeal to cold<br />
unresponsive souls is an exhausting experiment, and to<br />
sit sympathetically in company with them produces more<br />
depression in ourselves than exaltation in them." <strong>The</strong> refining<br />
influences of nervauric practice should not be wasted<br />
on coarse, immovable temperaments; such creatures should<br />
be willingly abandoned to the heroic treatment of cathartics,<br />
emetics, stimulants, narcotics, epipastics, and sudorifics.
234<br />
Dr. Carter had <strong>his</strong> hypo, Dr. Thomson <strong>his</strong> lobeUa inflata,<br />
the homeopaths their decilHonth parts, and the regulars<br />
their calomel. Dr. Buchanan had the organ of Sensibility;<br />
of all the bumps it was <strong>his</strong> favorite. From it developed <strong>his</strong><br />
doctrine of Impressibility and around it to a large degree<br />
centered <strong>his</strong> nervauric system. T<strong>his</strong> organ, discovered while<br />
he was still a medical student, lies between the eye and the<br />
upper ear in the region of the temple. Here Sensibility,<br />
Impressibility, and Somnolence came together. <strong>The</strong> lower<br />
part governed sensations of heat, cold, dryness, light, and<br />
sound; in the upper portion centered Modesty and Ideality.<br />
A few passes of the hand on t<strong>his</strong> spot, or on the region<br />
between the sternum and the umbilicus, and a "thorough<br />
Sensitive" would in a few minutes be brought into a somniloquent<br />
trance and behave sympathetically under the<br />
influence of the operator's constitution.<br />
In t<strong>his</strong> state the subject was in svich rapport with the<br />
operator that he served as a delicate recording instrument<br />
of the psychic and nervauric emanations. ''Since each vital<br />
function of the body is expressed at the surface, and . . .<br />
for every function there is an external locality at which<br />
it may be reached," the subject might be made to register<br />
everything indicated on the chart. If he touched the mirth<br />
bump of the operator, provided it were well developed, he<br />
were subnormal he would<br />
would laugh uproariously; if it<br />
merely giggle. By touching the proper spots he would<br />
become brave or cringing, amative or combative, cautious<br />
or impetuous, cheerful or morose, calculating or reverent.<br />
By keeping in contact with the health locality of a healthy<br />
person he would absorb energy; if he felt the disease spot<br />
of a sick person he would register pain and illness. It might<br />
be inferred from the chart, that if he lightly spanked anyone<br />
he would become both hostile and violent.<br />
Really good subjects could serve as psychometers on<br />
others than the operator, on perfect strangers even. <strong>The</strong><br />
thoughts, characters, propensities, and talents of anyone<br />
could thus be analyzed and measured. Nor need the person<br />
under examination even be present: from the handwriting
235<br />
the sensitive subject could detect the delicate nervauric<br />
impulses of the writer. Or from a corpse, since death did<br />
not destroy the nervaura, he could reconstruct the "facts<br />
of <strong>his</strong>tory and biography never before obtainable, or even<br />
dreamed of."<br />
<strong>The</strong> possibilities of t<strong>his</strong> technique were limitless. Not<br />
only did Buchanan anticipate lie detectors and the aptitude<br />
tests<br />
of vocational psychologists, but the processes of the<br />
"new type" biographers and <strong>his</strong>torians as well. No longer<br />
necessary would be such tedious and dry impedimenta as<br />
documents. In the field of diagnosis any subject could<br />
discover, if not cure, any disease. Best of all, almost anyone<br />
could learn to practice t<strong>his</strong> useful art. In fairness to<br />
amateur operators one caution was issued. <strong>The</strong> operator<br />
should be careful not to get too familiar nervaurically with<br />
a subject whose nervaura was tougher than <strong>his</strong> own; personahties<br />
might become amalgamated to such an extent<br />
that unscrambling them would be impossible.<br />
Since Buchanan's system explained the exact source of<br />
all the functions of the mind, it followed that "we are<br />
enabled to control these functions for every purpose that<br />
may be desired, and to act upon mind and body as we<br />
please . . .<br />
." It had immense power "for hygienic and<br />
medicinal pjirposes—for the treatment of Insanity—for<br />
the purposes of Education—for promoting the general<br />
social happiness, by a due regulation of the passions—for<br />
the reformation of criminals, and for the philosophical<br />
re-organization of the science of -medicine."<br />
Psychometry alone "will guide mankind hereafter into<br />
more profound science and philosophy than has ever before<br />
been conceived—carrying us into all the mysteries of<br />
physiology, pneumatology, paleontology, astronomy,<br />
geology and antiquity." <strong>The</strong> only limitation he put on its<br />
possibilities was that in northern climates only a portion of<br />
the people were subject to nervauric influences.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> number is far greater in proportion to the mildness<br />
and warmth of the climate, the refinement of character,<br />
the cultivation of the gentler emotions, and the effeminacy
236<br />
of the mode of life. In many cases, however, we find the<br />
impressibility so moderate as to render it more tedious,<br />
expensive and laborious to treat diseases in t<strong>his</strong> manner<br />
than by medicines, and unless some measures are adopted<br />
to increase the impressibility, there would not be sufficient<br />
encouragement to induce one to persevere in manual treatment."^<br />
Buchanan thought to carry beyond Psychometry and<br />
Sarcognomy, and explain anthropology through its mathematical<br />
key Pathognomy, "the law of linear direction<br />
which governs all life in all worlds.'^ His chapters on<br />
"Cerebral Harmonies, or Laws of Co-operation" and<br />
"Mathematical Relations of Man to Man" in <strong>his</strong> System<br />
of Anthropology set forth the laws of antagonism, cooperation,<br />
and continguity, with diagrams. <strong>The</strong> pathognomic<br />
lines of the organs which would interfere, clash, and<br />
produce antagonism when two heads faced each other,<br />
would run parallel, coincide, and produce sympathy when<br />
they faced the same direction. One gathers that if all<br />
persons faced the same direction at all times, their relations<br />
would ever be pleasant. So with nations, with planets<br />
even. Had Buchanan given science a whole volume on t<strong>his</strong><br />
subject, as he promised to do in <strong>his</strong> <strong>The</strong>rapeutic Sarcognomy,<br />
it is possible the world might have been spared<br />
much trouble. Dr. Buchanan rightly predicted that he<br />
would not live to see the triumph of <strong>his</strong> contribution, to<br />
see it revolutionize medicine and life. T<strong>his</strong> failure would<br />
be due in part to the "engrossment of ambitious minds in<br />
their immediate environment" and "to our systems of<br />
education, which utterly fail<br />
to develop invention, originality,<br />
and power of independent reasoning."<br />
Though Buchanan's ratiocinations resulted in the foundation<br />
of no new school of medicine, they radiated<br />
"nervauric" influences in infinite ramifications. Before<br />
dismissing <strong>his</strong> theory of nervauric influences too lightly, it<br />
might be well for one to read some of the investigations<br />
of recent scientists in the field of telepathy, clairvoyance,<br />
and measurement of electrical brain waves, or to compare it
237<br />
with the ideas of Dr. Alexis Carrell (Man the Unknown) }^<br />
Buchanan's curious mind ranged over a wide field from<br />
Anima, the spirit of life, to "zootes" of the dubious realm.<br />
Few things escaped it. One chapter in <strong>his</strong> System of<br />
Anthropology, for instance, dealt with "Bletonism," or<br />
Water Witching. As he said, the subject had been neglected<br />
by the scientific. Although t<strong>his</strong> chapter contained a number<br />
of demonstrable errors — "it is very easy ... to change<br />
its [the divining rod's] direction by the unconscious movement<br />
of the hand of the holder" (certainly not true when<br />
the V-switch ends are held in pliers, or when the switch<br />
actually twists off above the grip)—it at least offered an<br />
attempted explanation, which is very rare in the voluminous<br />
literature on t<strong>his</strong> subject. He also correctly observed<br />
that far more persons are "sensitive" in t<strong>his</strong> respect than<br />
is currently thought. To anyone familiar with t<strong>his</strong> subject,<br />
apparently no more understood by the scientist than by the<br />
ignorant. Dr. Buchanan's theory, "<strong>The</strong> whole cause therefore,<br />
of the facts and phenomena must be found in the<br />
constitution, capacities and pecuHarities of the individual,"<br />
appears as good as any. Perhaps some people may be able<br />
to get the influence of a medicine by merely holding a<br />
bottle in the hand. Peculiar as it may seem, he apparently<br />
made no effort to find out whether he was a "sensitive,"<br />
or "witch," with the divining rod.<br />
Other possibilities of the Buchanan system are left to the<br />
imagination of the reader. Perhaps the first impression of<br />
the Louisville Journal of December 1, 1841, gives a fair<br />
evaluation:<br />
"What a feast of wonders should we have to spread<br />
before old Cotton Mather, of Witchcraft memory, could<br />
he, at t<strong>his</strong> day, revisit t<strong>his</strong> breathing world. He would, it<br />
is true, miss <strong>his</strong> witches, <strong>his</strong> phantom-ships, <strong>his</strong> ghosts, and<br />
hobgoblins; but still, we think, he would be at no loss for<br />
materials for another volume of <strong>his</strong> 'Magnalia'. At least if<br />
he would happen along t<strong>his</strong> way about these times, Dr.<br />
Buchanan could show him some things which would throw<br />
almost any chapter of <strong>his</strong> book of 'wonderful things' into
238<br />
the shade. He would confess, on attending one of the<br />
Doctor's lectures, and witnessing some of <strong>his</strong> wonderful<br />
experiments in 'neurology', (as he styles the science,) that<br />
there were yet things in heaven and earth, which had not<br />
been dreamt of even in <strong>his</strong> philosophy.<br />
"We would not exactly class the Doctor's science with<br />
witchcraft and hobgoblinism, though it seems to be quite<br />
as marvelous as either; for the fact of <strong>his</strong> having made<br />
converts of some of the most intelligent of our citizens,<br />
would dispose us, aside from our own observations, to<br />
believe there is something in the matter worthy, for its<br />
novelty at least, the attention of the curious."<br />
Possibly John Bunyan Campbell of Pennsylvania, who,<br />
after the Civil War, opened the American Health College<br />
in Cincinnati, had read some of Buchanan's works. At any<br />
rate he founded Vitapathy, and built up a considerable<br />
following. Although <strong>his</strong> school did not fare well at the<br />
hands of the Ohio State Board of Medical Registration and<br />
Examination, it seemed to prosper otherwise. Largely a<br />
one-man affair, the school granted diplomas, but not<br />
M.D.'s; taught how to "pull out poison and rabid bites"<br />
with a special engine, practice obstetrics, treat diseases of<br />
women and children, lockjaw, cancer, and so forth, all<br />
without laboratory, dissection, or drugs. Graduates of t<strong>his</strong><br />
school of "vitapathic physicians and ministers" were<br />
empowered to heal the sick, give the vitapathic breathing<br />
prayer, administer the milk-sacrament, and emanate higher<br />
spiritualization.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> whole cult was based upon the presence everywhere<br />
of "Vita," a therapeutic agent which could be introduced<br />
into the body of a sufferer if handled by a properly qualified<br />
vitapathic physician. In order to facilitate t<strong>his</strong> introduction,<br />
since "<strong>The</strong> higher wisdom and spiritual power comes<br />
in at the top of the head," and since "Hair is a nonconductor,"<br />
according to Campbell, "the hair must be<br />
parted there to let the spirit in." Students of Campbell
239<br />
were made to pronounce a terrible oath that they would<br />
not speak of the contents of <strong>his</strong> books or show the books<br />
to anyone. Secrecy and monopoly were further guaranteed<br />
by "United States Right, by State Charter and by the<br />
Highest Divine Right," according to the title page of<br />
<strong>his</strong> Encyclopedia of Vitapatbic 'Practice. His literary and<br />
healing talents were further evidenced by <strong>his</strong> book on<br />
vitapathic materia medica, which contained a portion of<br />
the quack-nostrums and household remedies of all ages<br />
and climes.<br />
Campbell was referred to in 1909 as "the Cagliostro of<br />
Medical Cincinnati," whose "citadel of infamy still stands<br />
in Fairmount, a mute witness of iniquity unspeakable."<br />
<strong>The</strong> only question in the minds of some was whether he<br />
should have been confined in a state prison or an insane<br />
asylum.<br />
<strong>The</strong> regular <strong>doctors</strong> felt t<strong>his</strong> way about most of the<br />
irregulars.
WHO IS A DOCTOR<br />
CHAPTER VI<br />
^Who shall decide tvheit<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> disagree"<br />
Pope, Epistle III<br />
Jin the period in which medicine was making the transition<br />
from a very uncertain art to a more or less exact<br />
science the internecine warfare in the profession was not<br />
only prolonged but open, and, like politics and religion,<br />
a matter of important public knowledge and concern.<br />
Although the main battle line was drawn between regulars<br />
and irregulars, with many participants and followers on<br />
both sides refusing to wear uniforms for fear of identifying<br />
themselves too certainly with what might be the losing<br />
army, there were innumerable battles and skirmishes within<br />
the ranks of each host.<br />
By mid-century the old one-idea disease and cure systems<br />
—those of Brown, Rush, Cooke—were well on the way out<br />
as far as regular medicine was concerned. <strong>The</strong> rise of the<br />
French school—Bichat, Louis, and others with their statistical<br />
studies and checks—as well as the chemical discoveries
241<br />
of the early nineteenth century, were important contributing<br />
causes/ But so was the rise of Botanic, Eclectic, and<br />
homeopathic practices. In relation to the decline of the<br />
one-idea systems they stood as both cause and effect. In<br />
their attacks upon the heroic treatments of the bleed-purge<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> they helped overthrow the monistic concepts;<br />
having done so, they in turn emphasized their own onetreatment<br />
method and became the haven of refuge of both<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> and patients who still believed in such simple solutions.<br />
It was a process of attack from without, as well as<br />
boring from within. For instance, homeopathy in the<br />
beginning was "as much a part of regular medicine as<br />
any other system, and . . . contemporary studies recognized<br />
it as such."" Eclecticism, on the other hand, started<br />
from without, yet found its path converging towards that<br />
of regular medicine. <strong>The</strong>se chaotic years in which the older<br />
remedies were being undermined and cast aside with no<br />
immediate certainty of new ones to take their places,<br />
practically coincided with the <strong>pioneer</strong> period of medicine<br />
in the Middle West.<br />
However uncertain the regulars were regarding tenets<br />
of their own faith, they did agree on two things: the<br />
first, that medicine constituted a body of knowledge which<br />
required some little time and effort to assimilate; and the<br />
second, that the integrity of the profession should be<br />
defended against any and all who sought to break it down.<br />
To them most irritating and obnoxious, because most<br />
numerous and aggressive, were the Botanies. <strong>The</strong> Botanic<br />
contention that the mineral medicines of the regulars were<br />
poisons and that the patient was overcharged was bad<br />
enough, but the idea that humanity was being bettered<br />
by the administrations of every blacksmith or peddler who<br />
got a copy of Thomson, threw away the tools of <strong>his</strong> trade,<br />
and set up doctoring, was demoralizing. And in medicine,<br />
as in other fields, the task of combating ignorance with<br />
knowledge was a difficult one. Belief in the efficacy of<br />
charms and superstitions did not pass with savagery;<br />
vestiges remained with man in every situation, though
242<br />
they became weaker with the advance of sound education.<br />
"In despite of every exertion to illuminate the mass,<br />
many dark a«nd impenetrable spots will remain; so that<br />
society, in its best composition, must continue to display<br />
enough of credulity to render it ridiculous. From the<br />
depths of ignorance, with its overshadowing superstitions,<br />
— when the hopes of the sick rest upon spells and coscinomancy,—<br />
the first step taken, is to blend with these<br />
supernatural, a variety of natural means, resting the efficacy<br />
of the latter, on the occult influence of the former.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next advance, leaves the mummeries of the sorcerer<br />
behind; but clings to amulets, seventh-sons, 'y^i*b <strong>doctors</strong>,'<br />
and vagabonds. T<strong>his</strong> brings us to our own age— than<br />
which, with all our boasted elevation in learning and philosophy,<br />
no other has ever been presented a greater variety<br />
of barefaced and abominable quackeries. To eradicate them<br />
would be more difficult, than to root out the sour dock and<br />
Canada t<strong>his</strong>tle of our fields, while the soil continues to<br />
favour its reproduction. Planted in the ignorance of the<br />
multitude, warmed by its credulity, and cherished by their<br />
artful and unblushing authors, these impostures are fixed<br />
upon us, as the *poison oak' encircles the trunk of the<br />
noble tree, whose name it has prostituted. True it is, they<br />
are not always the same. <strong>The</strong> stupidest intellect at last<br />
comes to perceive their absurdity, and throws them off;<br />
but the impostors—<br />
"'New edge their dulness and new bronze their<br />
face,'<br />
and speedily invent fresh draughts for the gaping and<br />
thirsty populace.<br />
"When one of these quackeries is inoculated into a community,<br />
nothing can arrest its spread, or limit its duration.<br />
Every dog has its day, and so has every nostrum. <strong>The</strong> gulping<br />
is universal; not extending, it is true, to every individual,<br />
but to all classes. <strong>The</strong> propensity to be cheated is<br />
not confined to men or women, the old or young, the poor<br />
or rich, the unlearned, or (we are sorry to add,) the<br />
learned; but displays its workings in the weak-minded and<br />
credulous of all. Like the small pox it prevails till all the
243<br />
susceptible are infected, and have gone through the disease.<br />
A moment of common sense may, perhaps, succeed to the<br />
period of suffering; as natural fools have sometimes spoken<br />
well from the shock of a violent blow. <strong>The</strong> desire to be<br />
cheated, however, returns apace; but not earlier than the<br />
desire to cheat —"^<br />
So the cry was "down with the regulars."<br />
"If not the greatest impostors, they cheat us out of most<br />
money, and kill us to boot.—<strong>The</strong>y bleed us to fainting,<br />
blister us to wincing, stupify us with opium, vomit us<br />
with tartar instead of lobelia, salivate us with mercury,<br />
in place of the panacea, or the 'stone mason's balsam,' and,<br />
purge off with calomel all kinds of phlegm, but that which<br />
encumbers our brain! Let no one be over nice. <strong>The</strong> end<br />
sometimes justifies the means. Suffering humanity cries<br />
aloud, and must be rescued from the keeping of science<br />
and skill and professional charity. <strong>The</strong> world has been in<br />
error four thousand years; and the path of medicine may<br />
be followed back by the carcasses of its victims. Doctor<br />
Thomson, and doctor Swaim, and doctor Rafinesque have<br />
received new 'gifts,' and are ready to distribute them.<br />
Push aside the 'riglar' Doctors! — Conceal all their <strong>cures</strong>,<br />
and pubhsh all their failures! Go among their patients, and<br />
labor to overthrow a long established confidence! Brand<br />
them with ignorance of the human system! Stigmatize<br />
them with cruelty! Denounce them as mercenary! and<br />
Libel them as infamous! Break down the aristocracy of<br />
learning and science! Give the people their rights: let the<br />
drunken and lazy among the tailors, and carpenters, and<br />
lawyers, and coblers, and clergy, and saddlers, and ostlers,<br />
now rise to the summit level, and go forth as ministering<br />
angels! Become their patrons, and snuflF up in turn the<br />
steams of their incense; sustain them against the professed<br />
Doctors; lecture them into notoriety: mould them into<br />
form as the bear licks her shapeless pups into beauty: turn<br />
jackals and procurers lest they might want business: stand<br />
newspaper abroad their pre-<br />
responsible for their success:
244<br />
tended <strong>cures</strong>; and handbill away the proofs of their<br />
murders!"*<br />
Dr. Thomas D. Mitchell, of Cincinnati, who was somewhat<br />
addicted to writing poetry, treated the subject with<br />
a lighter touch, in <strong>his</strong> poem, "<strong>The</strong> Cobbler turned Doctor":<br />
"<strong>The</strong>re lived a man in Tinker-town,<br />
Whose name was Doctor Wen;<br />
A Wondrous man, of great renown,<br />
As e'er was one in ten.<br />
"His story would you like to know,<br />
And how he got <strong>his</strong> fame<br />
If e'er he read a book or no,<br />
Or simply stole <strong>his</strong> name<br />
"I'll tell you Sir; t<strong>his</strong> Doctor Wen<br />
A cobbler was by trade;<br />
Who oft had heard how other men<br />
By chance were Doctors made.<br />
"He could not read a single line,<br />
Nor even write <strong>his</strong> name;<br />
Yet thought by hanging out <strong>his</strong> sign,<br />
He soon would ride to farne.<br />
"So then, resolved to change <strong>his</strong> trade,<br />
His kit he thus addressed.<br />
And in the short harangue he made,<br />
His shopmates kindly blessed.<br />
" 'Farewell my awl a7td wax-ends too.<br />
My lap-stone and -my seat.<br />
No more "old cobbler how d'ye do,"<br />
<strong>The</strong>se ears again shall greet.<br />
" 'I've mended soals full long enough.<br />
And hence my Constant care
245<br />
Shall be tuith Charms and Doctor Stuff<br />
Sick bodies to repair.<br />
" ^So fare ye well my worn out tools,<br />
My shop mates all farewell;<br />
Hence 'tis my lot to work for fools<br />
With charms or magic spell.<br />
" Tor tbo' a shoe I ne'er could make.<br />
To fit a foot on earth;<br />
Yet thousands will my nostrums take,<br />
And loudly praise their worth.<br />
" 'In vain long stitches have I tried<br />
My daubing to conceal;<br />
But Doctors faults the grave will hide,<br />
Nor one mistake reveal.<br />
" 'Be Physic then m^y last resource,<br />
For here / cannot miss;<br />
<strong>The</strong> Quack m-ust business get of course.<br />
He never fails in t<strong>his</strong>.<br />
" 'Vll purge but little; less I'll bleed,<br />
My plan shall be to charm;<br />
It may not always quite succeed,<br />
But then 'ttaill do no harm'.'<br />
''T<strong>his</strong> Doctor then <strong>his</strong> course began.<br />
And quickly gained a name;<br />
For very soon <strong>his</strong> charming plan,<br />
Spread far and wide <strong>his</strong> fame."<br />
<strong>The</strong> regulars pointed out that it was certainly a stretching<br />
of the intent of the patent law of 1793 to take advantage<br />
of its words "or composition of matter" to include<br />
drugs and methods of curing disease.<br />
Also that there was<br />
absolutely nothing new or original about the Botanic sys-
246<br />
that plant remedies, some good, some otherwise, had<br />
that steam baths had their points, as<br />
well as stimulating medicine, in certain diseases, but might<br />
be fatal in others; and that strong medicines were not all<br />
minerals; deadly poisons came from the vegetable world<br />
tern;<br />
been in use for ages;<br />
as well.<br />
<strong>The</strong> hands of the more conservative and modest of the<br />
regulars were tied somewhat by the "ethics of the profession."^<br />
Not all possessed the pen and daring of a Daniel<br />
Drake. Often help was received from the press. Said the<br />
Edwardsville Spectator in 1821, "It is one of the severest<br />
curses to a new settlement that quacks of every description<br />
find refuge there, but none do more mischief to society<br />
than the self-dubbed <strong>doctors</strong>, who in numerous herds deal<br />
death and destruction in the shape of p<strong>ills</strong>, powders, tinctures,<br />
etc."®<br />
Examples of the price paid for "quackery" were constantly<br />
printed and circulated. <strong>The</strong> "hot-stone steam system"<br />
received its share of blame for needless sacrifice of<br />
life. For instance there was the case of a child with a bean<br />
fast in her throat. She was given heat-producing medicines<br />
and steam baths to produce perspiration, then cold water<br />
was thrown on to produce a cold. <strong>The</strong> cold was supposed<br />
to bring on a cough and the cough bring up the bean. It<br />
did not work out according to theory; the vinegar thrown<br />
on the hot limestones to induce the perspiration produced<br />
carbonic acid gas and suffocated the child. "When a few<br />
of them shall be convicted of murder or manslaughter and<br />
find their way to the halter or state's prison, the practice<br />
being found unprofitable, may be laid aside."^<br />
<strong>The</strong> suggestion was followed up a few years later when<br />
the "City and County of New York" indicted and tried<br />
Dr. R. K. Frost, who, "not having the fear of God before<br />
<strong>his</strong> eyes, but moved and instigated by the devil," did, in<br />
1837, "feloniously and willfully make an assault . . . and<br />
administer unto . . . Tiberius G. French into the body and<br />
bowels of him ... a certain noxious and injurious clyster<br />
... of cayenne pepper and lobelia . . . and did . . .
247<br />
willfully apply unto and upon the breast, stomach, belly,<br />
and back, head, legs and arms of him ... a certain noxious<br />
and injurious hot vapor called steam . . . and willfully<br />
caused to be swallowed by him a certain noxious and injurious<br />
drug or herb, to wit: lobelia"— all of which resulted<br />
in the said Tiberius G. French's dying or being killed "contrary<br />
to the form of the statute in such case made and<br />
provided and against the peace, government and dignity<br />
of the state." In t<strong>his</strong> famous case, in which the medical<br />
faculty were arrayed against the Thomsonians, testimony<br />
was heard for three days; among other expert witnesses<br />
was Dr. Wooster Beach, founder of Eclecticism. <strong>The</strong> judge<br />
charged the jury to "Pursue common sense as your guide<br />
. . . and render such a verdict as will justify you to the<br />
prisoner, to your own conscience, your country, and your<br />
God." After four hours' deliberation, the jury returned a<br />
verdict of guilty of manslaughter in the fourth degree,<br />
with a recommendation of mercy. An arrest of judgment<br />
was moved, consideration of which was postponed until<br />
the next term of court, and the prisoner was given <strong>his</strong><br />
liberty.<br />
A few days before the trial Samuel Thomson wrote Dr.<br />
Frost condoling with him over <strong>his</strong> persecution, and compared<br />
it with <strong>his</strong> own. "I have been thrust into prison and<br />
bound in chains— I<br />
have suffered every species of wrong<br />
and oppression, and yet I have outlived the venom of my<br />
enemies .... I have used my medicines for nearly half a<br />
century, and I solemnly and unequivocally assure you that<br />
I never knew them to produce deleterious results. Many<br />
accusations, it is true, have been brought against me; but<br />
other source.<br />
these have invariably originated with the medical faculty,<br />
and were founded in malice. I have been bitterly and<br />
inhumanly persecuted, for no other reason than because I<br />
healed the sick, and that too very often without any compensation,<br />
and when they could obtain relief from no<br />
I have expended Twenty four thousand Dollars<br />
in the State of New York in defending my system . . .<br />
."
248<br />
A somewhat different kind of trial was that of Col.<br />
M. Jewett of Columbus, Ohio, who, in 1835, was tried<br />
before a Methodist Church Court on four counts of falsehood.<br />
<strong>The</strong> trouble all began over a testimonial of John<br />
Miller in Jewett's Advertiser regarding the cure of daughter<br />
Nancy's severe case of Scald Head. Testimony, charges,<br />
defense, citizens' letters, and poems occupy about a hundred<br />
pages in the account by Thomas Hersey, which was<br />
published in Columbus in 1835, under the title Clericus,<br />
Esculapius, and Scepticus, vs. Col. M. Jewett, and His<br />
Chemical Preparations. <strong>The</strong> trial committee by unanimous<br />
vote pronounced the dispenser of botanic remedies guilty<br />
on all four counts, and he was expelled from the church by<br />
the minister, E. W. Sehon. Of t<strong>his</strong> "nefarious trial" Hersey<br />
said that in the <strong>his</strong>tory of persecutions the world had never<br />
presented a "blacker scene, a more exceptionable course<br />
than has been pursued by a certain coalition of professors,<br />
physicians and infidels, to effect the prostration of a man<br />
of distinguished and honorable standing, extensively known<br />
in the United States for <strong>his</strong> enterprise, hospitality and<br />
christian integrity, who, through a long, active and useful<br />
life, has sustained an unblemished reputation."<br />
A sense of humor, itself a critical sense, was an effective<br />
weapon, but most <strong>doctors</strong> were too worked up over the<br />
irregulars and "quacks" to use it; they could not see anything<br />
funny about the situation. Homeopathy, of course,<br />
with its doctrine of infinitesimals, affected the risibilities<br />
of <strong>pioneer</strong> wits, to say nothing of hydropathy, phrenology,<br />
vitapathy, and the like. Ironically enough, even "quacks"<br />
attacked "quacks." Anthony Hunn of Kentucky— he<br />
who had seen jawbones fall out like horseshoes as a result of<br />
too much calomel— appealed to the medical profession to<br />
supply information to the mass of the people so that they<br />
would no longer be prey to quackery. "Quacks, conjurers.<br />
Faith-<strong>doctors</strong>, Indians, Negroes, Cancer-women, etc., will<br />
be preferred only by a people bedizzened by ignorance and<br />
prejudice, and at war with their own dearest interests."*
249<br />
As for himself, he used "analeptic equalizers," let <strong>his</strong><br />
patients alone, and had eminent success.<br />
More difficult to handle was the general providentialhumanitarian-uplift<br />
approach of the irregulars. Not only<br />
did Samuel Thomson have a "Call from Providence, and a<br />
degree from the God of nature," but hydropathy, phrenology,<br />
mesmerism, Grahamism, and to a certain extent homeopathy,<br />
got inevitably intertwined with the aurae of democracy,<br />
associationalism, eclectic love, and free-soulism.<br />
Though the followers of many of the more strenuous of<br />
these urges allowed themselves plenty of right-of-way on<br />
either side of the straight and narrow path of orthodox<br />
religion, they were never loath to call attention to the fact<br />
that their enemies were heathen and atheist. So with the<br />
irregular medicos. Dr. Samuel Robinson, formerly a clergyman,<br />
did it very well in <strong>his</strong> Lectures:<br />
"I know some physicians distinguish between the rational<br />
soul and the vital principle of animal hfe. . . . But in<br />
animals, besides vitality, we perceive thought, reason, memory,<br />
design, and perseverance, with a great number of the<br />
noble passions which animate man— love, gratitude, affection,<br />
friendship, grief and bitter woe .... T<strong>his</strong> was the<br />
true sentiment and doctrine of the ancient philosophers<br />
—the presence and Superintendance of the Deity everywhere."<br />
Contributing to the common beUef that the regular<br />
faculty were frequently unbehevers was the practice of dissection,<br />
considered by many as a desecration of God's highest<br />
work— the human body, the temple of man's soul.<br />
Having explored its innermost and sacred secrets, they had<br />
"searched in vain for the appropriate habitation of the soul,<br />
in the cellules of the brain, or the more extensive apartments<br />
of the stomach, where later opinions seem to have<br />
supposed her residence to be, and have thence inferred, that<br />
there was no such inhabitant, and that man was no more<br />
than an organized body without a soul."<br />
Since effective state approval of dissection and provision<br />
for adequate anatomical specimens were still half a century
250<br />
in the future, medical schools and <strong>doctors</strong> were hard pressed<br />
for cadavers. But where there is a market there usually will<br />
appear an entrepreneur.<br />
"Resurrectionists" were both amateur and professional;<br />
as among athletes, the dividing line was somewhat hazy.<br />
When medical schools were few and scattered, students and<br />
professors maintained their own services of supply. Not<br />
all who stood around the new grave in the vicinity to witness<br />
the farewell ceremony were mourners. Some may have<br />
had the advancement of science, the art of healing, or their<br />
own careers in mind. "In the eternal fitness of things,<br />
many a man or woman was given a chance to redeem by<br />
such post-mortem service the emptiness of all the years<br />
which preceded the final march to the grave. "^<br />
Many were the adventures and yarns which collected<br />
around t<strong>his</strong> activity. Professor John T. Shotwell, of the<br />
Medical College of Ohio, acquired a new name, "Wellshot,"<br />
in addition to a lasting limp, from one of <strong>his</strong> nocturnal<br />
visits. Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell, a spiritualist as well as a<br />
brilliant anatomist and surgeon, and as eccentric as they<br />
came, had thrillers enough in <strong>his</strong> own right without those<br />
added by <strong>his</strong> students. When returning from a night expedition,<br />
he was driving the covered wagon and its cargo<br />
leisurely into town. When it began to rain and thunder,<br />
McDowell, who didn't like thunderstorms, grew nervous.<br />
Suddenly a shot rang out. When he turned, he saw the<br />
body sitting up, and in its bony white fingers a pistol. T<strong>his</strong><br />
was too much; he got away from there. <strong>The</strong> next day, when<br />
he told <strong>his</strong> class of being attacked by a cowardly assailant<br />
and pursuing the rascal a great distance, he received an<br />
ovation. T<strong>his</strong> he acknowledged with grateful smiles and<br />
bows.<br />
As medical colleges became better established it was no<br />
longer necessary for the professors to take such risks,<br />
though the students — according to some, saturated with<br />
a special form of depravity— continued to enjoy their<br />
ghoulish activities for many years. Early in 1832 students<br />
of the Medical College of Ohio memorialized the legisla-
251<br />
ture for redress against a ruling of the trustees by which<br />
they were forbidden to make "post mortem examinations."<br />
<strong>The</strong> trustees, in a lengthy defense of their action, stated<br />
that some members of the faculty had been exercising t<strong>his</strong><br />
privilege on all who died in the hospital, regardless of status.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y pointed out that their ruling still left plenty of<br />
bodies, since it affected only thirteen of sixty-seven which<br />
became available in the previous year. An agreement was<br />
finally reached between the faculty and trustees.^"<br />
By the 1830's professional body suppliers were carrying<br />
on their unromantic vocation in the vicinity of Cincinnati,<br />
Louisville, and other medical centers. <strong>The</strong>ir standard price<br />
for a cadaver was $10. As long as<br />
they confined their excavations<br />
to potter's fields, they were seldom bothered.<br />
Sometimes mistakes were made— or else malicious plants<br />
— as in 1878 when a searching party found, dangling at<br />
the end of a rope in the cadaver chute at the Medical College<br />
of Ohio, the body of former congressman John Scott<br />
Harrison, son of William Henry Harrison. <strong>The</strong> ensuing<br />
furor did m.uch to bring about passage of the Ohio law of<br />
1880 regarding dissection. ^^ <strong>The</strong> whole subject of "Resurrectionism"<br />
was one darkly hinted at, but seldom discussed<br />
in the open.<br />
<strong>The</strong> charges regarding the morals and religion of the<br />
regular faculty were harder to meet than the criticisms of<br />
their m.edicines. When in 1824 Dr. Charles Caldwell of<br />
Transylvania defended the medical profession on the basis<br />
of natural religion, as important and as God-given as<br />
revealed religion, <strong>his</strong> address was considered heretical, that<br />
of a freethinker.^^<br />
One of <strong>his</strong> colleagues, Dr. Thomas D. Mitchell, stated<br />
the defense in poetry:<br />
^^Madmen may charge us tvifh ifjimoral views,<br />
Our creed despise, our arguments abuse.<br />
Yet pleasure springs from t<strong>his</strong> delightful theme.<br />
We dwell on Nature and explore her scheme;"
252<br />
As frontier communities settled— often promoted by<br />
land boomers—lawyers and <strong>doctors</strong> of doubtful qualifications<br />
hurried in; sometimes the doctor and preacher were<br />
brought in by the promoters as an additional talking point.<br />
Though these "Unlicensed Doctors, alias Quacks" might<br />
be "the pest of regular practitioners, the tools of knaves,<br />
and the bane of society," as the more intelligent people<br />
were aware, the majority often defended them on the same<br />
grounds as they opposed legislation which required stock<br />
Such legislation was class<br />
owners to fence in their animals.<br />
legislation in favor of those who owned improved bulls,<br />
and the services of free scrub-bulls were better than no<br />
bulls at all. So with medical regulation; it would protect<br />
a vested interest.<br />
<strong>The</strong> problem of regulation of <strong>doctors</strong> was an old one.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Code of Hammurabi as well as other codes of ancient<br />
times contained provisions regarding fees and malpractice.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Salic Law of the Franks provided that "If an}"- one<br />
have given herbs to another so that he die, he shall be sentenced<br />
to 200 shillings (or shall surely be given over to<br />
fire)." And again, "If any one shall have dug up and plundered<br />
a corpse already buried, and it shall have been proved<br />
on him, he shall be outlawed until the day when he comes<br />
to an agreement with the relatives of the dead man, and<br />
they ask for him that he be allowed to come among men.<br />
And whoever, before he come to an arrangement with the<br />
relative, shall give him bread or shelter— even if they are<br />
<strong>his</strong> relations or <strong>his</strong> own wife— shall be sentenced to 600<br />
denars which make xv shillings." <strong>The</strong>se early laws were<br />
probably as difficult to enforce as those later.<br />
In the Middle West the whole subject of legal regulation<br />
of the licensing of <strong>doctors</strong> was intimately involved with<br />
the organization of, and qualifications for membership in,<br />
the medical societies.<br />
In Ohio, largely through the efforts of Dr. Samuel P.<br />
Hildreth of Marietta, a law was enacted in 1811 which<br />
divided the state into five medical districts, in each of<br />
which a board of three censors, or examiners, was to be
253<br />
<strong>The</strong> boards were to satisfy<br />
appointed by the legislature.<br />
themselves as to the moral character and medical knowledge<br />
of the applicant for a license. Unlicensed physicians<br />
were not forbidden to practice, but could not use legal<br />
processes to collect fees. A year later licensing privileges<br />
were put into the hands of the President and Fellows of the<br />
Medical Society of the State of Ohio and the state was<br />
divided into seven medical districts for administration. <strong>The</strong><br />
names of one hundred twenty eligible physicians were written<br />
into the law. At the first "convention," at Chillicothe,<br />
November, 1812, only five delegates appeared, whereas the<br />
law required ten; it adjourned sine die. By t<strong>his</strong> law those<br />
who practiced without licenses not only could not use legal<br />
means to collect fees, but for each offense were subject to<br />
fines of from $5 to $100, to be shared by the informant<br />
and the medical societies. <strong>The</strong> fines were changed by subsequent<br />
laws. <strong>The</strong> next General Assembly repealed t<strong>his</strong> law<br />
and returned to the law of 1811. Between 1813 and 1821<br />
the statute was amended, repealed, and reenacted at least<br />
three times.^^<br />
In 1 8 1 8 graduates of recognized medical institutions<br />
were made eligible to licenses without examination.<br />
By law in 1821 each of the nine circuits of the Courts of<br />
Common Pleas was constituted into a medical district, and<br />
in each district a board of five censors was appointed to<br />
examine medical candidates annually. <strong>The</strong> board also was<br />
to elect a delegate to the Medical Convention of Ohio, a<br />
corporate body, which was to meet annually at Columbus,<br />
and be given exclusive power to license candidates and<br />
prescribe "periods and methods of study and qualifications<br />
of the candidates."<br />
<strong>The</strong> first Medical Convention, at Columbus in 1821,<br />
adopted a rather stiff set of requirements which included<br />
good moral character, knowledge of Greek, Latin, "Mechanical<br />
Philosophy, two years practice with some reputable<br />
physician and at least one course of lectures from<br />
some 'respectable Medical Institution.' "^*<br />
In 1824 the law of 1821 was repealed. <strong>The</strong> new statute<br />
created twenty medical districts. As penalty for not con-
254<br />
forming to the procedure specified for licensing, a physician<br />
could not receive the benefit of the law for debt<br />
for each offense.<br />
collecting and was subject to a fine of $ 1<br />
After five medical conventions were held the legislature<br />
gave up; in 1833, largely as the result of the Botanic lobby,<br />
it repealed all laws for the regulation of physicians and<br />
surgeons.^^<br />
Some carping criticism had, from the beginning, questioned<br />
the right of the legislature to regulate medical practice,<br />
but the regular faculty argued that that body had the<br />
same right to govern medical procedure, as to regulate<br />
marriage/*^ Such a right meant little, since irregular practice<br />
continued to thrive. In 1868 medical regulation by<br />
law was again attempted, but it was not until 1896 that<br />
anything like effective laws were enacted.<br />
<strong>The</strong> law having failed to effect medical organizations,<br />
it was left to the <strong>doctors</strong> to take action. Frequently they<br />
disagreed when they tried to do so. For instance, when in<br />
the summer of 1821 proposals were made for a Cincinnati<br />
Medical Association which might determine a scale of fees<br />
and establish professional standards, a member of the<br />
faculty of the Ohio Medical College argued against it.<br />
"Justice" in a letter to the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati<br />
Gazette particularly attacked the proposal that members<br />
of the Association not consult with <strong>doctors</strong> who were not.<br />
Other criticisms followed. Similar arguments and differences<br />
were encountered in most of the early attempts at<br />
forming medical societies.<br />
From 1835 to 1851 the "Medical Conventions of Ohio"<br />
were open to all regular physicians; membership was individual<br />
and voluntary. Notice of the first triennial meeting<br />
"To be holden . . . January 1, 1838" appeared in the<br />
Columbus Daily Journal and Register. <strong>The</strong> object was<br />
"organization, advancement and elevation of the Medical<br />
Profession as well as the promotion of objects of general<br />
benevolence." All "Scientific Practitioners of Medicine and<br />
Surgery" of Ohio were invited, also "Brethren from the<br />
sister States who can make it convenient." In 1846 the
255<br />
Ohio State Medical Society was organized. In the earlyyears<br />
a large part of its work had to do with encouraging<br />
the formation and passing upon the requirements of the<br />
local or auxiliary societies. About a dozen of these were<br />
functioning by 1850. Despite urgent requests on the part<br />
of the State Society, these societies were still largely indifferent<br />
and dilatory in furnishing reports on membership,<br />
papers read, and actions taken. Prior to 1860 the only<br />
district society in Ohio was the Medical Association of<br />
Adams, Brown, and Clermont counties, organized in 1847.<br />
In Indiana the first General Assembly created each of<br />
the three Circuit Court districts into a medical district and<br />
provided for boards of censors to regulate the practice of<br />
physic and surgery, examine candidates, grant licenses, and<br />
fix fees.^^ <strong>The</strong> members of each board of censors were<br />
named in the statute. Persons who showed qualifications<br />
and "reasonable evidence of their moral character" were<br />
to be admitted to the "board" of their district, a body<br />
"corporate and poHtic." No person not a member of these<br />
"boards" (local societies)<br />
could have the benefit of the law<br />
for collecting any charges. In 1818 any person who was<br />
already practicing in the state in 1816 was excepted from<br />
t<strong>his</strong> provision. <strong>The</strong> next year the State Medical Society was<br />
incorporated and granted powers to license physicians.^®<br />
Any person who practiced without a license from the State<br />
Society (or a district society in the interim) was subject to<br />
a fine of from $10 to $20 for the first offense, and double<br />
thereafter. <strong>The</strong> money so collected was to go to the State<br />
Society for the promotion of medical science. By amendment<br />
in 1823 it<br />
was switched to the county seminaries.<br />
Following the law of 1816 the censors of the first district<br />
met at Vincennes in June, 1817, examined five candidates,<br />
and organized the board for the district. At the<br />
May, 1819, meeting, two delegates were selected by ballot<br />
to meet with those from the two other districts to form a<br />
State Medical Society. At the same meeting it was resolved<br />
that no person be admitted to examination before the censors<br />
if he could not produce satisfactory evidence of having
256<br />
"studied physic and surgery for the full term of three<br />
years"; also a committee was appointed to choose a delegate<br />
to meet in convention to formulate a District Pharmacopoeia.<br />
Other district delegates were likewise selected. Physicians<br />
of the third district met at Madison, August 1, 1817.<br />
In 1820 the Medical Society of the State of Indiana met at<br />
Corydon, the capitol. Annual meetings were held for several<br />
years. Just why the set-up under t<strong>his</strong> law was unsatisfactory<br />
is not clear, but at any rate in 1825 another law<br />
provided all over again for the organization of the Medical<br />
Society of the State of Indiana; a quorum of five representatives<br />
of the county societies was empowered to do it.<br />
From the words of the law, "the society when thus formed,"<br />
it would appear that no society was formed under the law<br />
of 1818. T<strong>his</strong> time the society was given the additional<br />
power to establish "a uniform system of the course and<br />
time of medical study," to qualify for license.<br />
How effective t<strong>his</strong> was may be judged from the law of<br />
1830^® which said that "owing to defects in the law regulating<br />
the practice of physic in t<strong>his</strong> state, the medical<br />
societies which now exist, have never been legally organized,<br />
and the provisions of the act are such as do not induce<br />
a large portion of qualified physicians to become members<br />
of any medical society, or sufficiently to guard against<br />
licensing unqualified men to practice medicine ."<br />
. . .<br />
To remedy these evils the law legalized the existing<br />
societies when they should file their names and those of<br />
their officers with the proper county auditors, all powers<br />
granted by the law of 1825 were extended to them, and all<br />
licenses granted by them in the interim were recognized.<br />
It was provided that after one year no person not regularly<br />
licensed in Indiana, or in an adjoining state of which he<br />
was a resident, or not "at the passage of t<strong>his</strong> act a resident<br />
practitioner of medicine in t<strong>his</strong> State" could recover anything<br />
by law for medical services. But there was a big<br />
"Provided"; nothing in the act was "to affect the right of<br />
females to practice midwifery, or apothecaries, or others
257<br />
not professing to prescribe or practice medicine, from selling<br />
medicine and recovering payment therefor." T<strong>his</strong> last<br />
section had the effect of leaving the state wide open to<br />
whosoever wished to engage in medical practice. Farmers,<br />
blacksmiths, and others frequently tried their hands at it.<br />
Local medical societies continued to exist, but though<br />
notices of their meetings appeared in the newspapers, one<br />
surmises from the frequent "reorganizations" that attendance<br />
was small and interest languishing. <strong>The</strong> Indiana State<br />
Medical Society was revived in 1849 and its continued<br />
existence dates from that year.<br />
Illinois, too, started off with an impressive paper effort.<br />
In 1817, since "well regulated medical societies have been<br />
found to contribute to the diffusion of true science and<br />
particularly to the knowledge of the healing art," the<br />
territory was divided into two medical districts by a<br />
meridian running north from the mouth of the Ohio. <strong>The</strong><br />
medical society of each was empowered to examine students<br />
and grant diplomas. After organization of the societies no<br />
one was to practice physic or surgery without a diploma;<br />
the penalty was disqualification "Jforever after" for use of<br />
the law for collecting any debts incurred by such unauthorized<br />
practice. Practicing rights of those who came into<br />
Illinois territory with licenses from their former states were<br />
recognized. Assessments of $ 1 each upon members of the<br />
societies were authorized "for the purpose of procuring a<br />
medical library and apparatus, and for the encouragement<br />
of useful discoveries in chemistry, botany, and such other<br />
improvements as the majority of the society shall think<br />
proper."<br />
In 1819 the first General Assembly divided Illinois into<br />
four medical districts, in each of which was to be "held a<br />
board of physicians." <strong>The</strong>se boards or societies when organized<br />
were to examine students and present diplomas. Persons<br />
who did not have a diploma from a medical school or<br />
who had not previously practiced in the state had either to<br />
pass an examination before a society or be disqualified from<br />
collecting any fees by use of the courts. All physicians were
258<br />
required by t<strong>his</strong> law to render to the president of the<br />
medical society of <strong>his</strong> district "a true and accurate record<br />
of all the births, deaths and diseases which may take place<br />
within the vicinity of <strong>his</strong> practice." Any physician who<br />
refused to attend the state meetings of the said societies<br />
was to be fined $5.<br />
That t<strong>his</strong> law had little effect may be concluded from<br />
the fact that, under the law of 1825, which divided the<br />
state into five districts, the "practicing physicians" of each<br />
district were authorized to elect a censor. <strong>The</strong> five censors<br />
so elected were to meet at Vandalia in November and form<br />
a board to examine candidates and grant licenses. Those<br />
with medical school diplomas or licenses from any "respectable<br />
medical society" were not required to submit to<br />
examination. Once the board of censors was organized it<br />
could certify the censor and physicians of each district, or<br />
their appointees, to conduct the examinations. Any person<br />
who practiced physic contrary to the provisions of t<strong>his</strong> law<br />
was subject to a fine of $20, which was to go to the county<br />
poor fund.<br />
Only about twenty persons attended the first meeting<br />
of the "Illinois Medical Society" (the board of censors),<br />
which was held at Vandalia in November. Most of these<br />
were applicants for licenses.^"<br />
<strong>The</strong> law of 1825 in its last section provided that the<br />
board of censors lay before the next General Assembly a<br />
plan for a permanent system of licensing. If they did so,<br />
nothing came of it, for on January 25, 1826, the legislature<br />
repealed the law of 1825 and no further legislation for t<strong>his</strong><br />
purpose was passed until 1877.<br />
Kentucky, which had some advantage in years over the<br />
states of the Old Northwest, might logically be expected<br />
to have <strong>pioneer</strong>ed in medical regulation. But it did not.<br />
Prior to 1860 there was no definition by law of who was<br />
a doctor of medicine. ^^ Practice of medicine was open to<br />
all, subject only to the power of opinion and influence of<br />
the various medical societies. An irregular or "quack" could<br />
be professionally blacklisted or read out of the profession,
259<br />
but there was always the law of libel to be considered, or,<br />
in the earlier period, the possibility of the matter's being<br />
made a point of honor, to be settled with swords or pistols.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first medical society in Kentucky was probably the<br />
one organized at Louisville on February 24, 1819.^^ <strong>The</strong><br />
Lexington Medical Society had held a number of regular<br />
meetings prior to 1828. In the early 1830's it was endeavoring<br />
to establish a medical library. A society had also been<br />
in existence in Caldwell County since about the middle<br />
1830's. It reported harmony among its members and<br />
eminent success in running out all "steam <strong>doctors</strong>" and a<br />
medicine peddler. Late in 1839 physicians from Mason,<br />
Fleming, and Bracken counties organized the Medical<br />
that<br />
Association of Northeastern Kentucky and resolved<br />
county and district societies be formed, and that a state<br />
convention be held in Frankfort for the purpose of organizing<br />
a State Medical Society.<br />
At the meeting in Frankfort in January, 1841, twentyeight<br />
counties were represented by delegates and a dozen<br />
others by proxies. Resolutions were approved that more<br />
emphasis be placed on scholarship and scientific background<br />
in the training of medical students; that three<br />
years be standard in a reputable college or four years preceptorial<br />
training under the direction of "some respectable<br />
medical practitioner." A constitution and by-laws, as well<br />
as a table of approximate fees, were drawn up. <strong>The</strong> convention<br />
adjourned, and did not meet again for ten years.<br />
Simultaneously with t<strong>his</strong> effort, physicians of Jefferson<br />
County were attempting to organize the Louisville District<br />
Medical Society. <strong>The</strong> Louisville Daily Journal, December<br />
30, 1840, asked what had become of the movement to<br />
organize a state society "to crush empirics, etc." Nothing<br />
had, immediately, even after the meeting.<br />
Additional local societies were organized during the<br />
decade of the 1840's, and in October, 1851, the Kentucky<br />
State Medical Society came into permanent existence.<br />
Problems and grievances of the profession were well presented<br />
in the report on ethics submitted at the second
260<br />
annual meeting of the Society, held in Louisville in 1852.<br />
At t<strong>his</strong> time it was pointed out that the public owed<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> consideration and respect comparable to that given<br />
ministers and lawyers and commensurate with the importance<br />
of their functions. If a doctor warned of an<br />
epidemic, he was likely to be berated as an alarmist, threatening<br />
to business; if brought in on a private case, liable to<br />
be "interfered with, beset, given advice, actually assailed by<br />
friends of some other practitioner." <strong>The</strong> practice of contracting<br />
for medical service on a yearly basis was denounced<br />
as being as bad as that of splitting fees with the apothecary.<br />
Nostrums, and the fact that ministers sometimes recommended<br />
them, were noted, and attention was called to false<br />
systems, secret medicines, and homeopathy. Quackery, not<br />
specifically defined, was to be severely dealt with; "anatomy,<br />
physiology, pathology, chemistry, physical diagnosis,<br />
etc.,<br />
are now indispensable."<br />
In 1819 the Governor and Judges of Michigan Territory<br />
incorporated the Medical Society of Michigan. When a<br />
quorum, not less than four in number, of physicians then<br />
practicing in the territory, should meet and organize, the<br />
Society would constitute a corporate entity. <strong>The</strong> Society<br />
was given the right to elect by ballot two new members<br />
each year from physicians residing in the territory. County<br />
societies were authorized to be formed in the same manner.<br />
Physicians who became members were to be excused from<br />
jury service and militia duties in time of peace. No person,<br />
unless duly certified in another state, was to commence the<br />
practice of physic or surgery until he was examined and<br />
certified by one of the societies established by t<strong>his</strong> law.<br />
No society was to examine any candidate until he furnished<br />
testimony that he had studied with a respectable practitioner<br />
for the full term of three years.<br />
If any candidate felt<br />
that he did not get just consideration from any of the<br />
county societies, he might present himself to the Society<br />
of the Territory of Michigan. Anyone in the territory who<br />
practiced contrary to the provisions of t<strong>his</strong> law was to be
261<br />
liable to a fine of $25 for each offense and forbidden to<br />
use the courts to collect fees for services performed.<br />
In 1825 an amendment prescribed four years of study,<br />
after the age of sixteen, "with a regular physician and<br />
surgeon," but one year of classical studies or one course of<br />
lectures at a medical college might be counted as one year<br />
of t<strong>his</strong> preparation. Physicians from outside the territory<br />
were required to file a copy of their diplomas or certificates<br />
with the society of the county where they had practiced.<br />
Another amendment in 1829 declared that any person<br />
who practiced medicine outside the provisions of the law<br />
should be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by<br />
a fine not to exceed $100, imprisonment up to six months,<br />
or both.<br />
In 1838 an elaborate law re-enacted many of the provisions<br />
of the law of 1819. Countv societies already created<br />
were recognized. <strong>The</strong> penalty for unlicensed practice was<br />
merely to be denial of court procedure for collecting fees.<br />
After due notice, and filing of evidence in writing, licenses<br />
of physicians might be annulled for "infamous crimes,<br />
habitual drunkenness, or gross ignorance or incompetency,"<br />
by a two-thirds vote of the members present of a<br />
county society.<br />
In 1843 the penalties of the law of 1838 for unlicensed<br />
practice were repealed, but if "any person who proposes<br />
to be a physician or surgeon, or shall hold himself out to<br />
the public or any person employing him to be such," should<br />
be guilty of neglect or malpractice, action might be had<br />
at common law.<br />
Three years later (1846) a law of thirty-seven sections<br />
went through the whole business once more of erecting a<br />
State Medical Society and county societies, and fixing their<br />
powers to examine and license. Section thirty-six declared<br />
unlicensed practice a misdemeanor punishable with one<br />
year's jail sentence and a fine of $1,000, or both. T<strong>his</strong><br />
section was repealed by law in 1851. In 1849 the Supreme<br />
Court of the state in the case of Stilton v. Facey refused<br />
to decide who was a doctor.
262<br />
Wisconsin in 1841 incorporated the Medical Society of<br />
the Territory of Wisconsin and provided for the organization<br />
of county societies along the general model of the law<br />
of Michigan, from which it had recently been separated.^^<br />
Yet in 1883 the Secretary of the Wisconsin State Board of<br />
Health wrote: "I do not know how the impression has gone<br />
abroad, as it has, that we have a law regulating the practice<br />
of medicine, for we have none."^^<br />
Such a statement would have been substantially correct,<br />
as far as results were concerned, for any state in the Middle<br />
West prior to the Civil War. <strong>The</strong> laws cited above serve as<br />
samples for the region; they are evidences of intent rather<br />
than records of accomplishment in determining who was<br />
doctor. <strong>The</strong> story was the same in Tennessee, Missouri,<br />
a<br />
and Iowa. <strong>The</strong> organization of the American Medical<br />
Association in 1846 was supposed to stimulate and<br />
strengthen the movement for state societies and regulation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 1850 meeting was held at Cincinnati and the 1859<br />
meeting at Louisville. Although influential in encouraging<br />
organization of state societies, the national association had<br />
no important immediate effect in tightening state regulation<br />
in the West. <strong>The</strong> penalties of fines were seldom, if ever,<br />
enforced. <strong>The</strong> usual penalty on irregulars of not being able<br />
to use the courts to collect fees meant little;<br />
the regulars<br />
could not collect their fees even with the aid of the courts.<br />
For all practical purposes, anybody was a "doctor" who<br />
called himself a doctor.
NIRVANA IN BOTTLES:<br />
DRUGS AND ^^PATENTS"<br />
CHAPTER VII<br />
"Ye would be dupes and victims, and ye are.<br />
7s it enough or must 7, while a thrill<br />
Lives in your sapient bosoms, cheat you still''<br />
JL he rise of the drug trade paralleled the development of<br />
medicine in the West. During the period between homemade<br />
herb medicines and the rise of American pharmaceutical<br />
manufactories, the United States depended largely<br />
upon Europe for its drugs. Philadelphia, the American<br />
medical center, was the chief importer of English chemicals;<br />
New York handled largely French, Spanish, German,<br />
and Italian articles; Boston was the center of trade in East<br />
Indian products, such as indigo, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves,<br />
general spices, and gums.<br />
A few western druggists prior to 1830 made annual<br />
purchasing trips to one or more of these eastern cities, but<br />
the majority had to be content with a visit to Philadelphia,<br />
or even Pittsburgh, where most of the necessities could be<br />
had. Ten years later it was not necessary for any but jobbers
264<br />
or distributors to go even to Pittsburgh.<br />
In Indianapolis in<br />
1835 Scudder and Hannaman required a full newspaper<br />
column to report the following items as having been<br />
"selected in Philadelphia from late importations and are<br />
fresh and of good quality": medicines, family medicines,<br />
and surgical instruments and equipment, which included<br />
"Amputating, Trepanning, Obstetrical, and Pocket Cases,<br />
various sizes; American & German Spring Lancets, Evans'<br />
Crown and Com. Thumb Lancets, Gum Lancets, Tooth<br />
Drawers assorted. Forceps do. Elastic Bougies, Catheters<br />
and Pessaries, Glass and Ivory Pessaries, Silver Male and<br />
Female Catheters, Syringes of all sizes, Breast Pipes, Nursing<br />
Bottles, Nipple Shells, Hull's Patent Truss, Com. do. Stet<strong>his</strong>copes,<br />
Surgeons' and Spaying Needles, Scales and Weights,<br />
Tweesers, Scarificator's and Cups."^<br />
Dr. G. Dauson, of Pittsburgh, in 1825 advertised fresh<br />
drugs and medicines— family, patent, and horse — surgeons'<br />
instruments, trusses, mortars, pestles, syringes, nipple<br />
glasses, oils, varnishes, paints, dyes, perfumery, and all sorts<br />
of chemicals and gums. "Within a few years not only Cincinnati<br />
firms, but others in Louisville, St. Louis, Detroit,<br />
Indianapolis, Springfield, Chicago, and Columbus were<br />
engaging in both the wholesale and the retail trade. Such<br />
houses as J. J. Smith Jr. and Company and "Apothecaries<br />
Hall" (Johnsons and Lott) of St. Louis, Mitchell's in Cincinnati,<br />
and John M. Kerr of Columbus, carried in stock<br />
paints, oils, dye stuffs, patent and botanic medicines, "fancy<br />
articles," English, French, American, and other drugs.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y also handled optical supplies, surgical instruments,<br />
and store furnishings. <strong>The</strong>ir advertisements appeared in<br />
newspapers throughout the West.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se large stores supplied the drug stores and merchants<br />
of the smaller towns, as well as the peddlers who worked<br />
the country districts in covered wagons. But before the<br />
drugs were ready for the "saddle bag trade" they had to be<br />
processed, usually by the druggist or <strong>his</strong> apprentice, sometimes<br />
by the doctor himself.
265<br />
"Doctor Thomson, and doctor Swaim, and doctor Rajinesque<br />
have received new 'gifts/ and are ready to distribute them. . . .<br />
We have never known these pretended superior remedies, circulated<br />
among the ignorant populance, to live long in the<br />
admiration of their own eulogists. One folly after another<br />
floats down the current, and each is caught at with avidity— till<br />
death engulphs both deceiver and deceived."<br />
Not without reason were pestle and mortar (or bottles<br />
and balances) the sign of the drug store. Sugar of milk,<br />
gum arabic, opium, bloodroot—in fact, most powders<br />
except jalap, rhubarb, and ipecac—were produced by slow<br />
and monotonous work with pestle and mortar. "Sugar of<br />
milk came in what we called 'cobs' because it looked somewhat<br />
like an ear of corn. A stick 12 or 14 inches long was<br />
put in the saturated solution which crystallized about the<br />
stick. T<strong>his</strong> was extremely hard to powder. A man might<br />
work it in a mortar all day and not get more than a pound.<br />
A day's work might not furnish more than two pounds of<br />
powdered gum arabic."^ "A ponderous iron mortar, a tincture<br />
press and a Swift's drug mill were the ever present<br />
dread of the apprentice."^ Tincture of iron was made from<br />
iron rust, the result of the action of nitric or muriatic acid<br />
fumes on thin plates of iron. Making ointments, mercurial<br />
ointment, for instance, was a tedious task. What could be<br />
accomplished with mechanical aids in fifteen minutes a<br />
generation later required as many days in the 1 840's.
266<br />
Castor oil, sweet oil, essence of lemon, peppermint, cinnamon,<br />
wintergreen, horehound, alum, salts, borax, copperas,<br />
saleratus, seidlitz powders, quinine, calomel, opium,<br />
and the like, were usually to be found in even the smaller<br />
stores. <strong>The</strong> influence of the herb and botanic practice is<br />
noticeable in the lists in the United States Pharmacopoeia<br />
of 1820 and 1830, for among other items listed were digitalis,<br />
bittersweet, juniper, geranium, garlic, tulip tree bark,<br />
sassafras, hops, tobacco, guiac, delphinium, parsley, iris,<br />
wild lettuce, and ergot; also gold, isinglass, prunes, musk,<br />
and yeast.<br />
Not all<br />
the drug inventory was made up of medicines.<br />
Indigo, logwood, fustic, nicwood, madder, and cochineal<br />
were used for dyes; gums were ingredients of dyes, plasters,<br />
inks, and, with turpentine and alcohol, of varnishes and<br />
burning fluids. Other articles were used for confections,<br />
perfumes, and seasoning.<br />
In addition to paints, varnishes, glassware, and <strong>doctors</strong>'<br />
instruments— at times hardware, notions, and even groceries—the<br />
drug store handled ''patent" medicines, wines,<br />
soft drinks, and usually hard liquor as well. Brandy, port,<br />
and sherry were for "medicinal" purposes. When the prohibition<br />
movement became a factor to reckon with, drug<br />
stores sometimes compromised on "Kentucky wine," also<br />
presumably for medicinal purposes. <strong>The</strong> drug store's chief<br />
competitors in the sale of both patent medicines and liquor<br />
were the general store, so well known as a dispenser of<br />
w<strong>his</strong>key as to be called a "groggery" rather than a grocery<br />
by those with a prohibition bias, and the book store or<br />
stationer's shop, which often had monopoly rights on certain<br />
of the proprietary medicines.<br />
Daniel Drake's soda fountain in <strong>his</strong> Cincinnati drug store<br />
in 1816 is the first in the West to which we have certain<br />
reference. A dozen years later soda water with syrup and<br />
flavors was widely advertised. Prominent citizens as well<br />
as town loafers, when they dropped in to pass the time of<br />
day, asked for a little soda "with a stick in it." One surmises<br />
that the straw, which came later, as did the ice cream,
267<br />
In 1845 W. W. Brown of<br />
never did entirely replace the "stick." A popular drink of<br />
the period was Sarsaparilla Mead, which was advertised not<br />
only as a thirst-quencher, but as an aid to digestion and a<br />
preventive of fevers, headaches, indigestion, and diarrhea.<br />
Some drug stores advertised botanic medicines, Thomsonian<br />
remedies, and vapor baths.<br />
Lexington, among others, seems to have specialized in<br />
botanic medicines; he listed those of Thomson, Mattson,<br />
Beach, Curtis, Howard, House, and Professor Rafinesque.^<br />
Truly the early drug store was the department store of<br />
its day. As was the general store, it was willing, especially<br />
during scarce-money days, to accept beeswax, ginseng,<br />
flaxseed and hempseed, and other articles in trade. After<br />
1840 the drug store inclined to restrict its functions more<br />
specifically to drugs, only to become a general store again<br />
in the tv/entieth century.<br />
Druggists, like many <strong>doctors</strong>, learned their trade by the<br />
apprentice system. Trained chemists were few. T<strong>his</strong> may<br />
account for the fact that by the middle of the century<br />
the druggist was very often a German. In Cincinnati, and<br />
to a certain extent in Evansville, St. Louis, and elsewhere,<br />
Germans predominated in the drug business. At Cincinnati<br />
in the 1850's Edward S. Wayne, at one time professor at<br />
Ohio Medical College, received a salary of $7000 a year as<br />
chief pharmacist with the drug establishment of Suire<br />
and Eckstein. Wayne, Adolph Fennel, and others secured<br />
a charter in 1850 for the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy,<br />
the third school of its kind in the United States.<br />
In its early days its quarters were the upstairs rooms of<br />
W. J. M. Gordon's drug store.<br />
Even fairly accurate estimates as to the importance of<br />
drug manufacturing in the West are difficult to make.<br />
<strong>The</strong> census of 1840 listed the output, including paints and<br />
dyes, as follows: Ohio, $101,000; Indiana, $47,000; Illinois,<br />
$19,000; and Michigan, $1,500. It is hard to believe that<br />
the annual sales of Thomson's western manufactory, or<br />
later,<br />
of the eclectic tincture concentrate producers alone<br />
did not equal or exceed t<strong>his</strong> total.
268<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>pioneer</strong> doctor wrote few prescriptions. When people<br />
called a doctor they wanted him to do some doctoring.<br />
Not only did he prescribe and administer <strong>his</strong> medicines,<br />
but to a certain extent he prepared and mixed them. Some<br />
of the drugs came to him unprocessed; pestle and mortar,<br />
balances, spatula, and mixing and measuring board were<br />
almost as necessary to him as to the druggist. Some drugs<br />
he mixed into liquids, some into p<strong>ills</strong>, while others he skillfully<br />
rolled into dosage-size powder papers. <strong>The</strong> saddle<br />
bags were, in fact, small travelling drug stores.^<br />
<strong>The</strong> ailing <strong>pioneer</strong>, uncured by home remedies and local<br />
"Hippos," was all too prone to place <strong>his</strong> trust in the certain<br />
promises of the marvelous elixirs, extracts, and balms which<br />
came in bottles and p<strong>ills</strong>. Superstition and charm <strong>cures</strong><br />
were bad enough, but at worst they were largely negative<br />
evils. With the growth of traffic in "patent" medicines<br />
came a positive menace, one which a century of education<br />
in an age of science has not been able to eradicate. Interesting<br />
it is that the rise of the patent medicine business was<br />
synchronous with, and dependent upon, the development<br />
of education and the newspaper. Schools made it possible<br />
for the majority to read; the newspaper furnished something<br />
to read. <strong>The</strong> newspaper made the patent medicine<br />
business and the medicine advertisements sustained the<br />
newspaper. <strong>The</strong> only other considerable source of income<br />
for the country paper was the public printing— laws,<br />
legal notices, and such— and because of the shifting fortunes<br />
of party politics, these were not always to be depended<br />
upon. But the medicine advertisem.ents spread their financial<br />
blessings regardless of politics or creed. <strong>The</strong>y paid the<br />
printer and the printer's devil, bought paper, paid postage,<br />
carried deadhead and delinquent subscribers, and sometimes<br />
provided something over for the grocer and the candlestick<br />
maker.<br />
<strong>The</strong> amount of space devoted to patent medicines varied<br />
greatly with the paper. Generally it was relatively less in
,<br />
269<br />
the elephant-folio and blanket-sheet weeklies, the triweeklies,<br />
and the dailies of the cities than in the smaller-sized<br />
county-seat or country papers, but t<strong>his</strong> was not always true.<br />
Such papers as the Western Sun, the Illinois Intelligencer<br />
and the Kentucky Gazette in the 1820's, small-sized,<br />
four-page sheets, usually carried from one to three columns<br />
Great Female Medicine<br />
In cases of nervous<br />
debility, female obstructions,<br />
Fluor AIbus,<br />
&c., they have<br />
proved the most successful<br />
medicine in<br />
use. <strong>The</strong>se are the<br />
most prevalent of all<br />
derangement of (he<br />
female economy inducing<br />
from their debilitating<br />
effects, a<br />
train of maladies that<br />
tend to embitter personal<br />
comfort more<br />
than any other human<br />
ill. That great agent<br />
of death, Consumption,<br />
is sure to mark<br />
two-thirds of the females<br />
who thus suffer.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Sanative<br />
or Great American<br />
P<strong>ills</strong> in female gmplaints should be strictly<br />
administered, and if followed up with proper<br />
atteotioD will soon effect a perfect cure.<br />
of medicine advertisements. A trifle on the extreme side was<br />
the Hamilton Intelligencer (Ohio) of 1840, a four-page<br />
paper with seven columns to the page. Two columns on<br />
page one and seven on page four were filled with medicinal<br />
notices. <strong>The</strong> editor later announced that the big "Evans<br />
Fever and Ague P<strong>ills</strong>" display would be reduced to give more<br />
room for reading matter, but frankly admitted that such<br />
advertisements were necessary to maintain the paper.<br />
Otherwise county newspapers would need a paid circulation<br />
of two thousand instead of a few hundred. "<strong>The</strong> bones<br />
are sold with the beef ."°
270<br />
Occasionally an editor joined the regular <strong>doctors</strong> and<br />
thinking people in viewing with alarm the baneful effects<br />
of the pernicious advertising of dangerous nostrums. A<br />
Fort Wayne editor pro tefn in 1847 noted that "Every<br />
village newspaper from the North to the South, and from<br />
the East to the West, is filled with their trash." When the<br />
regular editor returned, he repudiated not only the political<br />
blunders made by <strong>his</strong> understudy, but the faux pas in connection<br />
with advertising policy as well.^ Ideals were all<br />
right, but—<br />
Although newspapers carried the main load of medicine<br />
advertising, almanacs, broadsides, travelling and local<br />
agents, travelling "<strong>doctors</strong>," hawkers, pitchmen, and the<br />
general storekeeper all did their share. Travelling agents<br />
representing firms which marketed their products over a<br />
wide area called upon the drug and general stores, but no<br />
outlet was too small to be cultivated. Most of the wellknown<br />
sponsors of patents published their wholesale and<br />
retail prices in the newspapers, but a few sold their goods<br />
with the understanding that the retailer could charge what<br />
the local traffic would bear. Some sold their product unlabeled<br />
and let local distributors put on their own names.<br />
Under such arrangements the profits were likely to be one<br />
hundred per cent when the product was sold for currency,<br />
more if given in trade. <strong>The</strong> medicine shelf was one of the<br />
general store's busy, as well as profitable, corners. <strong>The</strong> storekeeper<br />
himself was often consulted and could prescribe<br />
on the basis of customer testimonials or of the margin of<br />
profit allowed. Many country peddlers displayed a few<br />
choice medicines along with their pretty calicoes and household<br />
utensils. A few who specialized in medicines were hard<br />
to distinguish from the travelling "<strong>doctors</strong>" and pitchmen.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se last-named gentry were of various stripes. Some<br />
had formerly been "yarb and root" men who found it<br />
easier, as well as more profitable, to sell an already-prepared,<br />
widely-advertised product than to make and sell their own.<br />
Some had been actual <strong>doctors</strong> or had tried to be <strong>doctors</strong>;<br />
others simply adopted the title. Whatever their origin,
271<br />
they were aware of the fact that the customer paid for <strong>his</strong><br />
p<strong>ills</strong> and patents more promptly and frequently than for<br />
regular medical service. Many were pure venders who, if<br />
they had not been selling medicine, would have been selling<br />
something else. On muster days and court days, at political<br />
rallies, at "protracted meetings," wherever and whenever a<br />
crowd assembled, these men could be counted upon to<br />
make their appearance. <strong>The</strong>y knew all the tricks long<br />
before there were courses in the psychology of salesmanship;<br />
they knew human nature. Like the Hindu fakirs or<br />
the sideshow ballyhoo artists, they caught the attention of<br />
the people by one means or another— an Indian costume,<br />
a touch of magic, or, by the 1850's, a combination of banjo,<br />
blackface artist, and bit of minstrel music. Medicine salesmen<br />
were adept at making their listeners feel and recognize<br />
all the symptoms; in fact, they could make them practically<br />
enjoy having such symptoms. Besides the inevitable<br />
bargain offered, there were innuendoes and allusions to the<br />
monopoly of the regular <strong>doctors</strong> who sought to withhold<br />
secrets and medicines necessary for the good of the people.<br />
Above all, these men were humanitarians; like "the people's<br />
<strong>doctors</strong>," they appealed largely to the "common man."<br />
Nor was it entirely a matter of psychology and sales<br />
technique. People did have pains and aches, coughs and<br />
colics. Agues, malaria, a long, wet winter on a diet deficient<br />
in vitamins— a "round of calomel" or a "course of medicine"<br />
would be indicated as a part of the spring routine.<br />
Women really had "that tired feeling"; children did have<br />
croups and worms; people did get constipated and have<br />
hurts and sores. Attractively presented and flavored medicines<br />
were harder to resist than plain calomel, salts, castor<br />
oil, or lard and sulphur. Some persons became regular customers<br />
because of the opium or other narcotics in the<br />
"pain-relievers" or because the high alcoholic content in<br />
some of the "bitters" gave a feehng of well-being. Some<br />
liked the pleasant herb flavors, just as some people like to<br />
chew chewing gum. Besides, taking medicine was something<br />
to do; many "just plain had the medicine habit."
—<br />
272<br />
Incidentally the advertising methods <strong>pioneer</strong>ed by the<br />
patent-medicine sellers were later to be extended to many<br />
fields.<br />
Most "patent" medicines never did have patents; rather<br />
they were proprietary medicines, possibly invented or concocted<br />
by the person whose name was attached, but more<br />
often only sold under that name. Since a patent served<br />
to convey the idea of government sanction, perhaps recommendation<br />
even, peddlers of proprietaries, either by direct<br />
statement or implication, sought to create the notion that<br />
their particular product was a patented medicine. Though<br />
by and large possessed of a fair sense of appreciation of the<br />
ludicrous—himself a lover of and creator of tall tales<br />
the <strong>pioneer</strong> could get taken in by <strong>his</strong> own badger fight.<br />
Change the name of the game, take it out of <strong>his</strong> immediate<br />
experience—after all, the word in print was hard to get<br />
around. <strong>The</strong> bigger the lie the harder to disprove. Allowing<br />
a discount of ninety per cent, there still remained enough<br />
potency in the cure-all to warrant a try. Besides, the pitchman<br />
had put on a good show; the artist was worthy of<br />
<strong>his</strong> hire. If <strong>his</strong> product did not cure rheumatiz or sweeny<br />
it might clean a copper kettle or soften a pair of stiff boots.<br />
Specimens of patent medicine blurbs might be listed ad<br />
plethoratum.. To the student whose work takes him to the<br />
newspapers of a century ago they prove irresistible; however<br />
seriously bent upon scholarly pursuits,<br />
he faithfully<br />
reads, in the absence of comic strips, the "latest" jokes<br />
and the patent serials.<br />
Long before the country had roads passable by anything<br />
on wheels the good people of the Ohio Valley were<br />
assured that most of their troubles, as far as health was<br />
concerned, were over. Dr. Yernest's Elixir had seen to<br />
that. It gave strength to and enlivened the vital spirits,<br />
heightened the animal senses, cured the trembling of the<br />
nerves, softened and lessened rheumatic pains and prevented<br />
them from progressing upwards; cleansed the stomach<br />
of bad humors which caused indigestion, sourness,<br />
headaches and vapors; killed the worms; cured the colic
273<br />
of the intestines in some minutes; relieved the dropsy, often<br />
in an hour's time; took away pains of the head and softened<br />
the ears of the deaf; soothed aching in the hollow tooth,<br />
cleansed the blood and served as an antidote against poison.<br />
"It is useful for females, gives color and a fair complexion;<br />
purges imperceptibly and without pain; <strong>cures</strong> all intermittent<br />
fevers at the third, and is a preservative from all<br />
contagious disorders."^<br />
Four years later at Cincinnati the firm of Richard Lee<br />
and Son, of Baltimore, was advertising worm-destroying<br />
lozenges, essence of mustard, grand restorative, antibilious<br />
p<strong>ills</strong>, sovereign ointment for the itch, ague and fever drops,<br />
Persian lotion, genuine eye water, toothache drops, corn<br />
plasters, lip salve, restorative pov/der for the teeth and<br />
gums, anodyne elixir, and Indian Vegetable Specific.<br />
''<strong>The</strong>se medicines having come into general use, they are<br />
frequently purchased not only by Druggists, but by country<br />
store keepers to sell again ."<br />
. . . And Daniel Drake<br />
and Company, of all people, besides books, marble mortars,<br />
and regular drugs, was selling Dr. S. H. P. Lee's valuable<br />
antibilious p<strong>ills</strong>, Dr. Rogers' celebrated vegetable pulmonic<br />
detergent for coughs and beginning consumptions, and<br />
an "Essential oil of worm seed,<br />
a new and valuable worm<br />
medicine."^<br />
Widely advertised in the early years were the thirteen<br />
patent medicines of Dr. T. W. Dyott, M. D., of Philadelphia,<br />
guaranteed to cure any <strong>ills</strong> from gout to female<br />
disorders. It required three columns of the small four-page<br />
Vincennes Western Sim in 1815 to set forth the virtues<br />
of these medicines.^*' Advertising simultaneously was Dr.<br />
J. Shinn, whose Panacea (Swaim's) was the only thing<br />
for scrofula or King's Evil, putrid sore throat, rheumatism,<br />
diseases of the bones, syphilis, "ulcers of the laryrux," liver<br />
complaints, and "that dreadful disease occasioned by a long<br />
and excessive use of mercury &c." Testimonials were<br />
appended from tv/o members of the faculty of the <strong>University</strong><br />
of Pennsylvania.^^ Panaceas seldom come cheap.<br />
Shinn's cost $24 the dozen, or $2.50 each.
)<br />
274<br />
Already by 1830, in addition to the miscellany of individual<br />
nostrums, had developed several systems or complete<br />
lines. "Dr." Swaim, whose remedies were advertised in<br />
the West in the 1820's under Dr. Shinn's name, was<br />
originally, according to Dr. Drake, a saddler and harnessmaker<br />
of New York. From contacts with ostlers and farriers<br />
he got the urge to become a doctor. Having obtained<br />
some sort of recipe proposed by a French physician, he<br />
moved to Philadelphia and began to advertise <strong>his</strong> panacea<br />
at $3 the bottle. He sent an agent to England and soon<br />
laudatory notices of the panacea appeared in Liverpool<br />
and elsewhere. One of the emphasized virtues of t<strong>his</strong><br />
medicine was its efficacy in curing diseases incurred by<br />
taking too much mercury (calomel). When it was revealed<br />
that Swaim's cure-all, besides borage, senna, and sassafras,<br />
contained corrosive sublimate, the strongest of the mercurial<br />
preparations, the popularity of <strong>his</strong> medicine waned<br />
somewhat, but it continued to be sold for many years.*^<br />
One of the West's noted characters was Constantine<br />
Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, of Transylvania <strong>University</strong><br />
and elsewhere. A sort of learned "Johnny Appleseed," he<br />
dressed the part and acted it. He was equally ready to<br />
write a serious two-volume Medical Flora of the United<br />
States^^ or to lecture on phrenology; to produce Ichthyologia<br />
Ohiensis (Lexington, 1820), which made him the<br />
country's most famous ichthyologist, or to batter up<br />
J. J. Audubon's beloved Cremona killing bats. (For t<strong>his</strong> last<br />
offense he paid by taking on faith several imaginary fish<br />
which Audubon drew—one of them ten feet long with<br />
bullet-proof scales—and classifying them scientifically, to<br />
the confusion of scientists for fifty years.<br />
In 1829 "Professor Rafinesque, Ph.D. and Pulmist,<br />
Professor of Practical and Medical Botany, Natural and<br />
Civil History &c. &c.,"^^ brought forth at Philadelphia<br />
<strong>The</strong> Pulmist; or, Introduction to the Art of Curing and<br />
Preventing the Consumption or Chronic Pht<strong>his</strong>is. T<strong>his</strong><br />
medical essay, according to the author, included a new and<br />
better distinction of the causes, kinds, remedies, diets, and
275<br />
other peculiarities of the disease. It was decorated with a<br />
woodcut which bore the motto ''I heal."<br />
<strong>The</strong> remedy came by means of a new medicine, Pulmel,<br />
whose virtues were available in several forms. <strong>The</strong>re was<br />
Syrup of Pulmel for internal use; Balsam of Pulmel, both<br />
liquid and solid, for inhalation; Balsamic Syrup, for either<br />
DR. MOORE & GO'S. MAGNETIC<br />
"Essentially vain in <strong>his</strong> pretensions of an infallible method of<br />
curing diseases the nostrum vender requires no light of sym.ptomatology,<br />
or pathology to he reelected on the case. He can<br />
prescribe by intuition and accomplish <strong>his</strong> purposes in the mystery<br />
of a dark and deceptious legerdemain. . . . 'In folly's cup<br />
still laughs the bubble quackery;' Yes! and that bubble will<br />
forever laugh as long as there is ignorance to be duped, and<br />
credulity to<br />
operate upon."<br />
internal use or inhalation; Lotion or Milk of Pulmel, for<br />
external use as a wash, for frictions, and for a fragrant<br />
inhalant; Wine of Pulmel, "made with sweet fragrant and<br />
healthy wines" for general use in debility; Sweet Chocolate<br />
of Pulmel, in cakes, for internal use; Liquid ditto, in<br />
bottles, merely requiring to be mixed with water or milk<br />
for a cup of instant chocolate; Sugar of Pulmel to be<br />
used in tea, coffee, or chocolate; Honey of Pulmel, to be<br />
eaten with bread; Lozenges of Pulmel, for the dry cough,<br />
sore throat, and painful consumptions; Powders of Pulmel,<br />
and Pulmelin,<br />
for internal use — "may be sent by mail";
276<br />
or Concentrated Salt of Pulmel, for internal use, also easily<br />
sent by mail. Raiinesque was willing to back <strong>his</strong> medicines<br />
with <strong>his</strong> personal services at $5 for the first visit and $1<br />
each for repeats; also "<strong>The</strong> Poor taught to use Tan bark<br />
for $1. Liable individuals taught how to prevent the<br />
disease for $1." For a while Rafinesque advertised under<br />
the nam^e "Medicus"; despite <strong>his</strong> modesty, he published<br />
in the Saturday Evening Post several statements from<br />
<strong>doctors</strong> regarding the efficacy of <strong>his</strong> <strong>cures</strong>.<br />
Daniel Drake thought no more of the Professor's<br />
medicines than those of Swaim or even "Dr." Salmon.^^<br />
Yes, t<strong>his</strong> was Rafinesque, the distinguished "iishtaker,"<br />
chronicler, and antiquary who had located all the wigwams<br />
of all the Indian tribes for the last three thousand<br />
years. "Strange metamorphosis of genius! that can make<br />
an apothecary's muller of such a learned head." As for<br />
curing consumptions, it had been known for centuries that<br />
human <strong>ills</strong> could be overcome by medicines made from<br />
the animal which was strong where the person was weak<br />
(the doctrine of signatures). Dr. Salmon's recipe was,<br />
no doubt, as good:<br />
"An Extract or Electuary of Fox Lungs is reported to<br />
be good against Coughs, Colds, Asthma's, all manner of<br />
Obstructions of the Lungs, shortness of Breath, difficulty<br />
of Breathing, &c. And for these Purposes the Lungs of<br />
a Hart, Buck, or Doe, are yet preferable; now if the gross<br />
Body of the Lungs, will do t<strong>his</strong>, what may be supposed<br />
the Volatile Salt will do Truely, it will do that in<br />
three minutes, which the other will not so well do in 10<br />
days; it will do all the aforementioned things, and cure<br />
an exquisite Vleurisie upon the Spot, t<strong>his</strong> I speak by<br />
experience. "^^<br />
Although Rafinesque was probably looked upon in <strong>his</strong><br />
medicine peddling as just another "quack," <strong>his</strong> biographer<br />
thinks he should not be so regarded. First, because he<br />
actually believed in <strong>his</strong> medicines; he had cured <strong>his</strong> own<br />
chronic "fatal pht<strong>his</strong>is" with <strong>his</strong> knowledge of medical<br />
botany. Second, there were extenuating circumstances: the
277<br />
motive was not sordid gain, but the need to finance further<br />
explorations, publish scientific brochures, and still be<br />
indebted to no man/^ Rafinesque wrote: "I introduced also<br />
a new branch of medical knowledge and art. I became a<br />
Pulmist, who attended only to diseases of the lungs, as a<br />
Dentist attends only to the teeth. Being thus the first<br />
Pulmist, and perhaps the only one here or elsewhere. <strong>The</strong><br />
new Profession changed my business for awhile; yet enabling<br />
me to travel again in search of plants or to spread my<br />
practice, and to put my collections in better order, publishing<br />
many pamphlets, &c." Despite <strong>his</strong> fame and Pulmel,<br />
the distinguished scientist must not have profited much.<br />
He died in abject poverty, alone, and almost unnoticed,<br />
in a Philadelphia attic in 1840. In <strong>his</strong> will he requested <strong>his</strong><br />
executors not to divulge the secrets of Pulmel, and left<br />
any future profits to <strong>his</strong> sister and daughter.<br />
Far more successful financially than Pulmel, judging by<br />
the volume and duration of advertisements, were the contemporary<br />
LaMott's Cough Drops, "peculiarly adapted<br />
to the present prevailing disorders of the lungs leading<br />
to consumptions." <strong>The</strong>se were to be had wholesale in<br />
1825 at Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and<br />
Columbus.<br />
Weak lungs were not entirely dependent on p<strong>ills</strong> and<br />
pulmels for protection. An early form of the modern gas<br />
mask was available in Lyman's Patent Health Preserver,<br />
a "useful and highly valuable Inhaling and Respiring<br />
Apparatus ... so constructed, that a direct communication<br />
is formed between the lungs and a small reservoir<br />
worn on the head, and, through which reservoir, all the<br />
atmosphere to be inhaled, is compelled to pass . . . can be<br />
worn at all times and under all circumstances, without any<br />
inconvenience whatever." <strong>The</strong> reservoir was to hold disinfecting<br />
agents, by whose action the atmosphere would,<br />
upon inhalation, become purified "from all that poisonous<br />
miasma combined with it, and which is generally admitted<br />
by all medical men, to be the primary or exciting cause<br />
of Cholera, Yellow Fever, Bilious Fever, Ship Fever, Fever
278<br />
and Ague, &c. . .<br />
." Though it might be worn at all<br />
times, the proprietor for the state of Ohio in 1849,<br />
D. Whitney, beheved that six to eight hours' use during the<br />
night would be sufficient for rendering "the inhalation of<br />
the common air perfectly safe during the day, without its<br />
use." T<strong>his</strong> instrument was useful as a disinfectant and a<br />
curative, as well as a preventive. Said Whitney: "We are<br />
confident, that, we cannot be reasonably charged with<br />
HUMBUGGERY, in offering to the public the HEALTH<br />
PRESERVER."<br />
Other popular remedies were Hepatica Triloba for<br />
coughs, consumption, and liver complaints; Dr. Felix's<br />
celebrated Liver P<strong>ills</strong> ; Hay's Liniment for dropsy, swelling,<br />
sores, and rheumatism; Vegetable Rheumatic Drops for<br />
same; Morrison's P<strong>ills</strong>, a sure remedy for all diseases from<br />
consumption to epilepsy; and Dr. Fahnestock's Celebrated<br />
Vermifuge and Liquid Opeldoc which could safely be<br />
administered to the tenderest infant. <strong>The</strong> manufacturer of<br />
Parker's Vegetable Renovating Panacea— "equal to Swaim's<br />
or any other and $ 1 cheaper"—for rheumatism, liver complaint,<br />
ulcers, mercurial and syphilitic diseases, rewarded<br />
editors who copied and inserted the advertisement up to<br />
twenty times with a proportionate quantity of the medicine.<br />
Dr. Peter of Peter's P<strong>ills</strong>, who claimed to be a graduate<br />
of Yale College and the Medical College of Berkshire,<br />
Massachusetts, combined literature with <strong>his</strong><br />
"<strong>The</strong> King of terrors looked awhile,<br />
As though <strong>his</strong> sotil was turned to bile<br />
At that unsparing scourge of <strong>ills</strong>,<br />
By all men known as Peter's P<strong>ills</strong>,<br />
science.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se p<strong>ills</strong> of Peter's stop the slaughter.<br />
And leave the blood as pure as water.<br />
Notu Peter vtakes I've heard him say.<br />
Five hundred thousand P<strong>ills</strong> a day;<br />
So that the chance is very sm-all,<br />
Of people dying there at all,
279<br />
For soon the cheeks so -marked for doom.<br />
Begin like any rose to bloom."<br />
As a result, no doubt, of t<strong>his</strong> classic, sales of six million<br />
boxes of p<strong>ills</strong> were claimed for the period 1835-40.<br />
<strong>The</strong> patent of Dr. Galleckes of Germany, "<strong>The</strong> Greatest<br />
of Human Benefactors," possessed triple powers derived<br />
from the vegetable, animal, and mineral kingdoms, and by<br />
"filling the vacuum in the Materia Medica, proved the<br />
conqueror of physicians." Dr. Robertson's Stomach Elixir<br />
of Health, Dr. Godbold's Vegetable Balsam of Life, Evans'<br />
Camomile P<strong>ills</strong>, Resurrection or Persian P<strong>ills</strong> for fever,<br />
ague, pregnancy, and so forth, and the famous Extract<br />
of Wa-ahoo, an Indian medicine for consumption, all had<br />
their devotees.<br />
<strong>The</strong> justly famous Hygeian Vegetable Remedy of the<br />
1830's was highly renowned as a cure for consumptions,<br />
cholera morbus, inflammation, dyspepsia, fevers, ague,<br />
indigestion, diseases of the liver, gout, rhaumatism, lumbago,<br />
dropsy, St.<br />
Vitus's Dance, epilepsy, apoplexy, paralysis,<br />
green sickness, smallpox, measles, whooping cough,<br />
and syphilis—in fact, about all the complaints and disorders<br />
to which human flesh was heir. Still the competition<br />
was keen, for simultaneously Dr. Gallopore was advertising<br />
in the Pittsburgh Statesman and elsewhere, that he<br />
could cure "all disorders incident to the human body,<br />
without exception, no matter what may be the age, circumstance,<br />
or place of residence of the afflicted patients."<br />
He did not even need to see <strong>his</strong> patients, but merely to<br />
know the precise time of their birth. By <strong>his</strong> p<strong>ills</strong> he could<br />
cure all accidents, including those persons supposedly<br />
scalded to death by the bursting of boilers, struck by lightning,<br />
or injured by falling trees. In fact, he guaranteed<br />
to keep anyone in such a perfect state of health that he<br />
could drink two gallons of alcohol per day, which, as the<br />
editor of the Cleaveland Herald said, was almost as bad<br />
as<br />
so much new w<strong>his</strong>key. ^^
280<br />
Fifteen years later Morrison's P<strong>ills</strong> still were claiming<br />
to be "<strong>The</strong> Genuine Hygean Vegetable Medicine," which<br />
operated on the theory that impurities in the blood were<br />
the cause of all<br />
disease.<br />
Sufferers from sprains, stiff joints, and general debility<br />
in the 1820's could find the old reliable Rattlesnake Oil<br />
under various brand names. A few years later they could<br />
try Whitmore's Penetrating Vegetable Liniment, excellent<br />
for horses as well as persons, or Gardner's Vegetable Liniment<br />
"for every external complaint to which Horses are<br />
Also for the Human Flesh." Nerve and Bone Lini-<br />
liable.<br />
ment might do the work, or French Jejube Paste, "a valuable<br />
article"; if these did not prove effective, and if the<br />
pain held over until the late 1840's, Jew David's or<br />
Hebrew Plaster had no equal in the world for removing<br />
all seated pains, whether in the joints, back, or breast,<br />
"also corns, wens and humours." In 1844 these plasters<br />
caused an "Awful Excitement in the Wabash Valley! Great<br />
Disappointment of the People." Many feared they could<br />
not go to the polls to save the country because of their<br />
lame backs. But the public was "assured that whether our<br />
next President shall be a hero, a statesman, or a traitor,<br />
the hitherto uncompromising principle of the Hebrew<br />
Plaster and Persian P<strong>ills</strong> will be fully carried out by showing<br />
quarters to no cases of disease for which they were recommended."<br />
Those with anti-Semitic prejudices could use Coal Oil<br />
Liniment prepared from "Canal" coal, or better still. Dr.<br />
M. S. Watson's Great Invincible Birgharmi Stiff Joint<br />
Panacea, which, discovered on the Nile, "has astonished<br />
every beholder, and no discovery in Medicine since the day<br />
of the illustrious Hippocrates, is probably equal in amount<br />
of usefulness to the one under consideration." In one sixmonths'<br />
period the latter had cured eighty-three hundred<br />
cases of stiff joints, chronic rheumatism, white swelling,<br />
contracted spinal cords, and gout. Really bad cases might<br />
have to resort to Dr. Christie's Galvanic Belt, or at least<br />
a necklace, which, by disseminating galvanic fluid, took
281<br />
care, not only of neuralgia pains and lumbago, but also<br />
fits, cramps, palsey, paralysis, epilepsy, deafness, nervous<br />
tremors, palpitation, apoplexy, ciirvature of the spine,<br />
gout, and general debility. Sixty thousand people had been<br />
permanently cured by its use. McLean's Volcanic Oil Liniment<br />
cured everything not taken care of by the Great<br />
Invincible or the Belt.<br />
Another contrivance calculated to bolster the body and<br />
morale of debilitated humans was Dr. Banning's Patent<br />
Lace, or Body Brace. T<strong>his</strong> apparatus made no claim to<br />
"miraculous powers such as the prevention of old age nor<br />
the curing of confirmed consumption or any other humbug!!!<br />
But does profess and establish, beyond successful<br />
contradiction, the important fact, that Nature only<br />
requires help! And that Help is here aflForded!!!" Advertising<br />
under the slogan "Truth h Mighty" it was proclaimed<br />
that "<strong>The</strong> object of t<strong>his</strong> Instrument is to relieve<br />
or cure the following Diseases, viz: Weakness of the Breast;<br />
Bronchitis; Shortness of Breath; Pain in the Chest; Weakness<br />
and Bleeding at the Lungs; Palpitation of the Heart;<br />
Dyspepsia; Costiveness and Piles; Pains in the Back; Spinal<br />
Curvature and Enlargement of one Hip and Shoulder;<br />
Falling of the Bowels; Prolapsus Uteri; Irregular, Painful<br />
or Profuse Menstruation; a Tendency to Abortion, and<br />
Painful Pregnancy, and the bad shape incident to childbearing;<br />
a disposition to drooping, lounging and weariness;<br />
Hysteria, melancholy, causeless crying, and thoughts of<br />
suicide; habitual Bilious Colic; Sea Sickness and Chronic<br />
Diarrhoea; Milk-leg, with old Ulcers; Varicose Veins;<br />
Pains, coldness, numbness, and swelling of the extremities;<br />
Weaknesses peculiar to males and females, as such, whether<br />
from solitary abuse, or the debility common at puberty.<br />
<strong>The</strong> deformities of weak and rickety children, are greatly<br />
under its control." T<strong>his</strong> patent lace or brace was marketed<br />
from the main office in New York through local agents and<br />
drug stores in the West.<br />
Perhaps something like t<strong>his</strong> was the device which Dr.<br />
William A. Ashton, an Eclectic doctor in eastern Indiana,
282<br />
had in mind in the 1850's when he wrote <strong>his</strong> prescription<br />
for prevention of sea sickness: "Tie down the intestines<br />
so as to prevent their jolting by using two belts—one passing<br />
under the thorax and the other between the legs."<br />
Two very important new medicinal discoveries of the<br />
1830's were *'Kreosot" and the tomato. <strong>The</strong> former, it<br />
was found, would resist putrefaction and preserve meat.<br />
Soon it was being recommended for both external and<br />
internal use; for sores and wounds it was the best remedy<br />
known. "People afflicted with the dreadful disease cancer,<br />
after having been despaired of by the most skilful physicians,<br />
have been completely cured by Kreosot."<br />
<strong>The</strong> lowly tomato, sometimes called "the love apple,"<br />
was either regarded as poisonous or was used only to garnish<br />
the meat platter in the 1820's. A few brave souls began<br />
to eat it in the early 1830's, and from then on its rise was<br />
rapid. Soon it was a universal favorite, and recipes for every<br />
sort of culinary use began to appear, including omelets,<br />
soup, dried tomato with ham, and "Katchup." Physicians<br />
proclaimed it not only not obnoxious, but useful and<br />
healthful. Dr. Bennet, Professor of Midwifery, Hygiene,<br />
and Acclimatement at the Medical College of Lake Erie,<br />
was no more enthusiastic than many others when he stated<br />
that the tomato was one of the most powerful deobstruents<br />
of the materia medica, and in certain liver affections probably<br />
the most effective and least harmful agent known. It<br />
would prevent bilious attacks, serve as a remedy for dyspepsia,<br />
was successful in treating diarrhoea, and would<br />
render one less liable to cholera. It should be eaten daily,<br />
raw or cooked. ^^ <strong>The</strong> medicine men were right up with,<br />
if not ahead of, the <strong>doctors</strong>. Phelps' Compound Tomato<br />
P<strong>ills</strong>, Dr. Miles' Compound Extract of Tomato, and other<br />
brands were advertised as substitutes for calomel and<br />
"peculiarly adapted to the treatment of bilious fevers and<br />
other diseases in which a torpidity or congestion of the<br />
liver and portal circle prevail," at prices somewhat higher<br />
than a modern bottle of catsup. In fact. Extract of Tomato<br />
was "undoubtedly one of the most valuable articles ever
283<br />
offered for public trial and inspection." From poison to<br />
panacea in five years— yet t<strong>his</strong> rapid inflation did not spoil<br />
the tomato, a previtamin vitamin which ultimately made<br />
good on its merits.<br />
Antedating the tomato as a general tonic and rejuvenator,<br />
if not outliving it, was sarsaparilla, which "purifies,<br />
cleanses and strengthens the fountain springs of life and<br />
infuses new vigor throughout the whole animal frame."<br />
Sands' Sarsaparilla, besides purifying the blood, cured<br />
scrofula, rheumatism, stubborn ulcers, dyspepsia, salt<br />
rheum, fever sores, erysipelas, pimples, bile, mercurial<br />
diseases, cutaneous eruptions, liver complaints, bronchitis,<br />
consumption, female complaints, loss of appetite, and<br />
general debility. Dr. Townsend's Sarsaparilla, "<strong>The</strong> Wonder<br />
and Blessing of the Age, the most extraordinary Medicine<br />
in the World," created new blood and in a five-year period<br />
cured one hundred thousand persons, including fifteen<br />
thousand incurables. By the 1850's sarsaparilla sots were<br />
thrilled by the announcement of the "Important Medical<br />
Discovery the Greatest Remedy in the World for Purifying<br />
the Blood," Dr. Easterly's Iodine and Sarsaparilla, six times<br />
stronger than other brands and only one dollar the bottle.<br />
Easterly's was recommended by the "Medical Faculty and<br />
men of the highest erudition." From the best information<br />
available t<strong>his</strong> remedy had within three 3^ears cured more<br />
than twenty-five thousand severe cases of disease: three<br />
thousand of scrofula; two thousand of dyspepsia and indigestion;<br />
one thousand of gout and chronic inflammatory<br />
rheumatism; two thousand of general debility; twentyfive<br />
hundred of liver complaint, dropsy, and gravel; fifteen<br />
hundred different forms of female complaint; and six<br />
thousand of syphilitic or venereal coughs, pimples, salt<br />
rheum, and headaches—all very conveniently in round<br />
numbers.<br />
By t<strong>his</strong> time a medicine had to be pretty good, to compete<br />
with Merchants' Celebrated Gargling Oil for Man and<br />
Beast, which was deservedly popular in the cure of "Spavins,<br />
Sweeney, Chapped Hands, Cake Breasts, Sore Nipples,
.<br />
284<br />
Piles, &c." (No testimonials from the horses were attached)<br />
Attempts to supplant the old family bottle of bitters<br />
were made by Dr. Lin's Temperance Life-Bitters and<br />
Chinese Blood P<strong>ills</strong>. (<strong>The</strong> Chinese lived to "such immense<br />
ages" because they purified their blood.) Time and space<br />
forbade the listing of all the brilliant effects of t<strong>his</strong> medicine,<br />
even by the proprietor. But beware! "FRADULENT<br />
COUNTERFEITS will be attempted." Brandreth's P<strong>ills</strong>,<br />
sold by special agents, were "allowed to BE ALL that can<br />
be accomplished in medicine, both for POWER and innocence."<br />
Illinois and Michigan resounded with their praises;<br />
there people rode sixty miles through the woods for a box.<br />
"Shun a Drug Store for . . . you are certain to get a<br />
Worthless Counterfeit Article." Boerhave's Holland Bitters,<br />
with the lions-rampant emblem, particularized in diseases<br />
of the liver, kidneys, and stomach, as well as fevers<br />
and agues.<br />
Dr. John Bull's Great American King was truly a sovereign<br />
remedy, which ruled its<br />
subjects from the principal<br />
office in Louisville. In comparison "the power of the<br />
crowned heads of Europe sink into insignificance . . . European<br />
Kings employ the power vested in them to increase the<br />
riches of the rich and lordly, and to reduce to greatest<br />
misery and degredation, the poor and dependent. Our<br />
American King goes forth with equal willingness to the<br />
lordly mansion and humble cabin, ready alike to administer<br />
relief and to offer health and happiness to the lofty and<br />
lowly the rich and poor." T<strong>his</strong> medicine, "<strong>The</strong> Tenth<br />
Wonder of the World," was at the people's command. "All<br />
those who still suffer, and will not accept the proffered<br />
Balm, deserve not the pity of their families."<br />
<strong>The</strong> medicine ads seldom made a direct appeal to the<br />
babies. <strong>The</strong>ir mothers were reminded, however, that Irish<br />
Moss was "valuable as a diet for infants afflicted with<br />
Debility, Derangement of the Stomach, and for those<br />
brought up by hand or after weaning." If babies were restless<br />
and their mothers aware of the dangers of too frequent<br />
use of soothing syrups which contained opium—which
a<br />
285<br />
they probably were not—a harmless substitute was recommended:<br />
smear baby's fingers with thick molasses, then put<br />
half a dozen feathers into its hands. <strong>The</strong> youngster would<br />
pluck feathers from hand to hand until it dropped asleep.<br />
When it awakened, supply more molasses and feathers.<br />
Hemmbold's Genuine Preparation of Highly Concentrated<br />
Compound Fluid Extract of Buchnu was a "joy to<br />
the afflicted . . . Beware of Quack Nostrums and Quack<br />
Doctors." Dr. Sappington's Vegetable Febrifuge P<strong>ills</strong>—<br />
simple treatment for a simple disease; Farr's Ague Tonic;<br />
Beckwith's Anti-Dyspepsic ; Dr. Taylor's Balsam of Liverwort;<br />
Stout's Highly Improved ... or Great Western<br />
Fever Panacea; Dr. Chipman's Vegetable Blood Purifier;<br />
McLean's Strengthening Cordial Blood Purifier—illustrated<br />
by before-and-after-taking pictures; Dr. Guysott's<br />
Extract of Yellow Dock; Wistar's Balsam of Wild Cherry;<br />
Dr. Phillips' Diarrhoea Syrup; Moffat's Vegetable Life P<strong>ills</strong><br />
and Phoenix Bitters; Dr. Duponco's Golden Periodical<br />
P<strong>ills</strong> for Females; Dr. R. Thompson's Pelvic Corset; Jayne's<br />
Hair Tonic and Expectorant; Carthusian Cough Drops;<br />
Bartholomew's Pink Expectorant Syrup; Circassian Lymph<br />
for pimples, scurvy, and rash; Dr. Baker's Specific—for<br />
seminal weakness and venereal diseases, "may be used by<br />
either sex with entire secrecy'^—and dozens of other items<br />
decorated the pages of the newspapers.<br />
Naturally no general store or drug store carried a complete<br />
"line" of patents, proprietaries, and nostrums, but<br />
some of them tried. Considering that many of the brands<br />
named were of local or short-lived fame, it is interesting to<br />
note that some stores, even in the 1840's, advertised two<br />
or three dozen different name-items.<br />
Analysis of these medicines will not be attempted here.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y differed importantly in no wise from those later<br />
exposed by the American Medical Association, Collier's,<br />
and other pure drug advocates. Some with herbs, flavors,<br />
and a fair amount of alcohol were relatively harmless;<br />
about the only difference between a powerful healing salve<br />
and a box of axle-grease was that the latter smelled better.
—<br />
286<br />
Others contained laudanum, opium, morphine, calomel or<br />
other forms of mercury, digitalis, and other drugs, useful<br />
when given in proper doses for definite <strong>ills</strong>, but certainly<br />
harmful as administered by the store keeper or the selfdosing<br />
medicine addict.<br />
<strong>The</strong> dangers of nostrums were recognized by some<br />
people at the time. Thinking editors whose consciences outweighed<br />
their financial considerations copied articles of<br />
warning from eastern papers and added their own. In the<br />
mid-1820's even, a western editor wrote:<br />
"However lenient we are at present with respect to the<br />
notorious, illiterate empirics, that infest t<strong>his</strong> country, more<br />
care was taken formerly, of the peoples constitutions, and<br />
their health was not suffered to be infected by these poisoners<br />
of whole countries.<br />
"Any idle mechanic, not caring longer to drudge at<br />
day labor, by chance gets a dispensatory, or some old receipt<br />
book, and poring over it, or having it read to him (for<br />
many of these present <strong>doctors</strong> cannot read), he finds that<br />
mercury is good for the itch, and old ulsers; that opium<br />
will give ease; and that a glass of antimony will vomit.<br />
"Down goes the hammer, or saw, razor, awl, or shuttle<br />
and away to work to make electuaries, tinctures, elixirs,<br />
p<strong>ills</strong>, plasters, and poultices ....<br />
". . . hundreds of little infants are yearly destroyed by<br />
the remedies the unhappy parents were prevailed on to<br />
administer in order to destroy those supposed worms, which<br />
never existed but in their brain.<br />
"Cobblers now set up for regular-bred physicians; hackney<br />
coachmen and barbers for anatomists and natural philosophers;<br />
washerwomen for chymists; tumblers and scavengers,<br />
for bone setters and occulists, et cetera. Nothing can<br />
equal the ignorance of such empirics but the stupidity of<br />
those people who buy their unwholesome preparations."^*'<br />
Perhaps a better form of attack was that adopted by the<br />
editor of the Portsmouth (Ohio) Journal in 1824:<br />
"Dr. Balthasar Beckar respectfully informs the public,<br />
that he is<br />
possessed of the genuine ABRACADABRA
287<br />
and understands the true use of the Dandelion flowers.<br />
"He is the inventor of a PILL that will straighten a<br />
Roman nose into Grecian; sharpen a bullet-nose to a keen<br />
edge; and bring down the most inveterate pug-nose to a<br />
reasonable degree of earthy mindedness. His DROPS are<br />
sovereign for all disorders of the teeth: they will extract the<br />
future decayed tooth from the gums of a nurse child, with<br />
intense delight, and will insert in lieu thereof a piece of<br />
polished ivory; they will give the breath any fragrance that<br />
the Patient may desire, and change the same at pleasure.<br />
Dr. Balthasar Beckar has a portable machine by which he<br />
frequently amuses himself with distilling rose water from<br />
<strong>his</strong> own breath. Onion-Eaters may be supplied with an<br />
apparatus for condensing their breath into Gum Assafoetida<br />
at a reasonable price. He has also<br />
converting the outer integuments into fur or broadcloth,<br />
at the will of the Patient.<br />
a LOTION for<br />
"<strong>The</strong> Unborn Doctor (for so Dr. Balthasar Beckar is<br />
commonly termed in the place of <strong>his</strong> nativity) scorns to<br />
make any professions which he is not able to fulfil.—As<br />
soon as the crowd of Patients will afford him a little leisure,<br />
he will endeavor to sell for publication a few of the cerficates<br />
with which the gratitude of the world is continually<br />
loading the U. States' mail. His correspondence is immense,<br />
and he has the honor of having under <strong>his</strong> care at t<strong>his</strong><br />
moment several of the crowned heads of Europe.<br />
"N. B. Cancers cured by inspection. Boots and shoes<br />
cleaned and every favor gratefully acknowledged.<br />
"P. S. No cure, no pay.<br />
"* * To prove the security of <strong>his</strong> professions. Dr.<br />
Balthasar Beckar will, on Monday next, precisely at 12<br />
o'clock, standing on the pavement in front of the Athenaeum<br />
swallow one of <strong>his</strong> own P<strong>ills</strong>. Practitioners of Medicine,<br />
and men of science generally, and all others who are<br />
fond of philosophical experiments, are invited to attend<br />
and witness t<strong>his</strong> heroic achievement."^^<br />
That these attempts to educate the public were very<br />
successful cannot be said; the booming patent-medicine
288<br />
business of the next hundred years indicates the contrary.<br />
Coinciding as it did with a period in which medicine was<br />
undergoing a transition from medievaHsm to modernity, in<br />
which the standards of medical education on the whole<br />
were declining, the <strong>his</strong>tory of medicine in the Middle West<br />
in the first half of the nineteenth century illustrates in<br />
striking degree some of the best, as well as some of the<br />
worst, features of the science. Rapid expansion of the<br />
country, the passion for business, the high esteem placed<br />
upon practicality, were not conducive to prolonged education<br />
for young men in any field of learning. Medicine,<br />
like the land, was, even by those within the profession, all<br />
too frequently exploited extensively rather than intensively.<br />
What the doctor lacked in training and knowledge<br />
he was supposed to compensate for with ingenuity and the<br />
American's reputed ability to rise to any emergency. T<strong>his</strong><br />
being the prevailing view, the careers of the Drakes, the<br />
Dudleys, and the Grosses, men who devoted their lives to<br />
the serious study of medicine and the elevation of its standards<br />
and accomplishments, stand out in all the more distinct<br />
contrast. It was not yet, so far as the generality of men<br />
were concerned, a scientific age. Science had to develop<br />
gradually.<br />
In agriculture the American accepted improvements in<br />
machinery first and easiest; these saved labor. Next came<br />
improvements in animals; they saved dollars. Last and<br />
hardest to the farmer came general science—soil chemistry,<br />
diets, plant pathology—the "book larnin' " of the "printer<br />
farmers." So it was in medicine. <strong>The</strong> first to receive popular<br />
acceptance were the manual services of the profession:<br />
setting of broken bones, amputations, and the like, especially<br />
after the advent of anaesthesia. Second came more<br />
general reliance upon the physician in cases of contagious<br />
diseases. Many persons who would not call a doctor for<br />
croup, dysentery, or rheumatism would do so for smallpox,<br />
diphtheria, or even measles. Last—and t<strong>his</strong> after the <strong>pioneer</strong>
289<br />
period—came common acceptance of the germ theory,<br />
vaccines, hospitals,<br />
and preventive medicine. Medicine, as<br />
compared with applied science in mechanics was at a disadvantage.<br />
Advances in general education at times served<br />
but to make the people more critical of their <strong>doctors</strong>, who<br />
themselves were critical of each other. Though in retrospect,<br />
t<strong>his</strong> period of confusion in medicine proved to be<br />
salutary, it did not so appear at the time. If public confidence<br />
was not lost, it at least developed slowly and intermittently.<br />
At all<br />
times the <strong>pioneer</strong> reserved the sovereign<br />
right to try to make the science of medicine conform to<br />
<strong>his</strong> concept of democracy, to criticize, complain, refuse to<br />
regulate, do <strong>his</strong> own doctoring or none at all. Yet in spite<br />
of everything—folk <strong>cures</strong>, household remedies, "hippos,"<br />
calomel, lancet, Lobelia No. 6, trillionths, animalculae,<br />
nervauric influences, "patent" p<strong>ills</strong> and bottles—some survived.<br />
Of that we have concrete and visible evidence.
NOTES<br />
NOTES: CHAPTER ONE<br />
^Described in the New York Medical Repository, X (1808), by<br />
Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth of Marietta.<br />
^ Dr. Hildreth in <strong>his</strong> presidential address before the Ohio Medical<br />
Convention in 1839 listed the following as major epidemics in Ohio:<br />
1790-95—Belpre, smallpox and scarlatina; 1796—Gallipolis, malignant<br />
fever; 1800-01—Chillicothe, epidemic fever; 1807—very general, epidemic<br />
fever; 1813, measles; 1822-23, epidemic fever, "<strong>The</strong> Great<br />
Epidemic"; 1824-25, measles and scarlatini; 1826, influenza; 1832-33,<br />
epidemic cholera. Another article, on the epidemic of 1822-23, was<br />
published in the Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical<br />
Sciences, V (1824).<br />
^ A. D. P. Van Buren, "<strong>The</strong> Pioneers' Foes," Michigan Pioneer and<br />
Historical Collections, V (1884), 300-2.<br />
^Daily's Family Physician (Louisville, 1848), 26-7.<br />
° Dr. Leon G. Zerfas presents an interesting account of t<strong>his</strong> disease<br />
in some of the southern counties of the state, "Milk Sickness in the<br />
Lincoln Family," in Indiana State Medical Society Journal, XXIX<br />
(1936), 88-9. A more recent treatment, with particular emphasis on<br />
prognosis, is Philip D. Jordan's, "<strong>The</strong> Death of Nancy Hanks Lincoln,"<br />
Indiana Magazine of History, XL, 2 (June, 1944).<br />
^ Dr. Guy S. Wright, "Observations on the Atmospheric Origin of<br />
the Endemic Sick Stomach . . .<br />
," Western Medical and Physical Journal,<br />
I (1827), 369.<br />
^ <strong>The</strong> disease has been confined largely to the Ohio Valley. For the<br />
<strong>his</strong>tory, description, and cure of milk sickness see James Fitton Couch,<br />
"Trembles (or Milk Sickness)," United States Department of Agriculture<br />
Circular 306 (1933 and 193 8).<br />
* Dr. A. A. Benezet, <strong>The</strong> Family Physician; . . . calculated particularly<br />
for the Inhabitants of the Western Country, . . . (Cincinnati,<br />
1826), 123 ff; Dr. John C. Gvmn, Domestic Medicine (Springfield,<br />
Ohio, 183 5), 194 £f; Dr. Daniel Drake, "Practical Observations in the<br />
Typhoid Stage of Autumnal Fever," Western Journal of the Medical
292<br />
and Physical Sciences (hereafter referred to as Western Journal), I<br />
(1828), 381 ff.<br />
^ First tried on <strong>his</strong> pupil, Daniel Drake, if tradition can be believed.<br />
See Reginald Fitz, " 'Something Curious in the Medical Line,' " Bulletin<br />
of the History of Medicine, XI, 3 (March, 1942), 239-64, for an excellent<br />
survey of the introduction of Dr. Edward Jenner's discovery and<br />
the <strong>pioneer</strong>ing of Dr. Benjamin "Waterhouse of Cambridge, Massachusetts.<br />
Also Morris C. Leikind, "<strong>The</strong> Introduction of Vaccination into<br />
the United States," Ciba Syfnposia (Ciba Pharmaceutical Products, Inc.,<br />
Summit, New Jersey, 1934 — ), III, 10 (January, 1942).<br />
^^ Perhaps the best treatment of the horror and destruction of t<strong>his</strong><br />
scourge available at the present time is John Sharpe Chambers, <strong>The</strong><br />
Conquest of Cholera (New York, 1938). For contemporary accounts<br />
of its progress consult Niles Register (Baltimore, 1811-49), XLII and<br />
XLIII<br />
(1832-33), and the more important newspapers of the various<br />
areas afflicted. See also Western Journal, VI (1833), 78-120, 321-64;<br />
VII (1834), 161-81, 341-9, for excellent discussions of the disease,<br />
with particular emphasis upon its appearance in certain parts of Ohio.<br />
^^ Dr. Daniel Drake, "Epidemic Cholera:—Its Pathology and Treatment,"<br />
Western Journal, V (1832), 612. Again in 1849 Dr. Drake<br />
wrote two letters of advice to the people of Cincinnati. No new <strong>cures</strong><br />
had been found in the interim.<br />
^"<br />
Not until 1843 was the contagious nature of puerperal fever definitely<br />
established. In that year Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes read <strong>his</strong> essay<br />
"<strong>The</strong> Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever" before the Boston Society for<br />
Medical Improvement. At the request of the Society it was printed<br />
in the April, 1843, issue of the New England Quarterly Journal of<br />
Medicine and Surgery. Since <strong>his</strong> message failed to obtain wide circvilation,<br />
it was reprinted with additions in 185 5. Dr. Holmes's proof has<br />
been considered one of the two major contributions to medical science<br />
in the period between 1840 and 1850.<br />
^^ "Mothers rejoiced rather than mourned, as they are apt to nowadays.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n a mother's joys were her children, now they are in the<br />
way of these gay women, who want cards and society; in the way of<br />
these poorer ones who think they can't provide for them. Have devoted<br />
mothers, like many other things, gone out of style Lord send a reform<br />
to the men and women of today! Bring them back to the life of the<br />
goodsized family circle of boys and girls. . . . Oh, Lord, bring my<br />
beloved land back to homelife and motherhood again." IlUnois Historical<br />
Society Journal, XVII (1924), 620-1.<br />
•NOTES: CHAPTER TWO<br />
^ Oliver W. Smith, Early Indiana Trials and Sketches (Cincinnati,<br />
1858), 12-13.
293<br />
^ For background of almost four thousand years of folk medicine<br />
see bibliographical essay. An excellent brief survey is Loren MacKinney,<br />
"<strong>The</strong> Vulture in Ancient Medical Lore ... in the Medieval World<br />
. . . and in the Modern World," a series of three articles in Ciha<br />
Symposia, IV, 3 (June, 1942).<br />
^ <strong>The</strong> Badianus Manuscript, translated and annotated by Emily<br />
Walcott Emmart (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1940). For comment<br />
on the literature of herbals see bibliographical note.<br />
* Francesco Hernandez (1514 -1587), personal physician to Philip<br />
II, at the King's request, explored the New World, 1570-77, for plants<br />
and medicines. In t<strong>his</strong> work he accumulated twenty-six foUo volumes<br />
of notes and drawings. An abridged edition of these was published in<br />
Rome in the seventeenth century. <strong>The</strong> originals were destroyed by fire<br />
in 1611. Much of the knowledge acquired by Hernandez was incorporated<br />
in Francisco Ximinez's Four Books on the Nature and Medicinal<br />
Properties of the 'Plants and Animals FouttJ in New Spain, which<br />
appeared in Mexico in 1615.<br />
^ Contrast with the Pennsylvania German theory: the leaves of boneset<br />
stripped upward act as an emetic, downward as a purgative. Edward<br />
Miller Fogel, Beliefs and Superstitions of the Pennsylvania Germans<br />
(Philadelphia, 1915), 278.<br />
^ <strong>The</strong> Aztec recipe was white incense, earth of a decomposed corpse,<br />
well ground up in dragon's blood and white of egg, and applied to the<br />
temple. Badianus Manuscript, plate 13.<br />
Nicholas Culpepper, in <strong>his</strong> <strong>The</strong> English Physician— Enlarged, A<br />
"^<br />
Compleat Method of Physick, whereby a Man may preserve <strong>his</strong> Body<br />
in Health or Cure himself, being sick, with things only as grow in<br />
England, they being most fit for English Bodies, 1704, had set forth<br />
the idea that every region of the earth produced indigenously the curative<br />
plants necessary for any disease there prevalent.<br />
Remedies of the vegetable kingdom in use in colonial times, according<br />
to Dr. Rufus W. Griswold of Rock Hill, Connecticut, in Alexander<br />
Wilder's History of Medicine. . . . (New Sharon, Maine, 1901),<br />
406-7, included the following: yellow dock, sarsaparilla, wintergreen,<br />
birch bark, elecampano, comfrey, sassafras, plantain, whitewood, dandelion,<br />
snake-root, hardback, horseradish, peppermint, spearmint, red<br />
peppers, Indian tobacco, wormwood, tansy, yarrow, star-grass, marshmallow,<br />
Indian hemp, wild ginger, mullein, pink-root, nightshade, barberry,<br />
sweet flag, catnip, wormseed, golden thread, dogwood, skunkcabbage,<br />
bittersweet, slippery elm, boneset or thoroughwort, blue gentian,<br />
crane's bill, pennyroyal, frostwort, henbane, blue flag, butternut<br />
bark, juniper berries, burdock, wild cherry bark, flaxseed, pumpkin<br />
seeds, parsley root. May apple, black alder, elderberries, white oak bark,<br />
sumach berries, rosemary, blackberry root, willow bark, sage, blood-root,<br />
skull-cap, seneca, mustard, golden rod, queen's root, stramonium seeds.
294<br />
uvaursi, valerian, hellebore, prickly ash, touchwood, agrimony, sweet<br />
fern, mandrake, marjoram, colt's foot, mistletoe, Peruvian bark. Many<br />
of these same remedies were indicated in Culpepper's treatise.<br />
*But not original: "Celtiberia in terra, quod quisque minxit, hoc<br />
sibi solet mane dentem atque russam defricare gingiuam, ut quo iste<br />
uester expolitior dens est, hoc te amplius bibisse praedicet loti." Catullus,<br />
Carmina, XXXIX. Also "<strong>The</strong>y [Iberians] have regard not for rational<br />
living, but rather for satisfying their physical needs and bestial instincts<br />
—unless some one thinks those men have regard for rational living who<br />
bathe with urine aged in cisterns and wash their teeth with it, both they<br />
and their wives, as the Cantabrians and the neighboring peoples are<br />
said to do." Strabo, III, 164.<br />
^ R. E. Banta, "<strong>The</strong> Indian Doctors," Wabash Bulletin, XL (January,<br />
1942), 24.<br />
^^ Indiana Republican (Madison), August 1, 1833.<br />
^^ For note on folk <strong>cures</strong> and superstitions see bibliographical note.<br />
^^ Debate regarding the efficacy of t<strong>his</strong> cure continues in the press<br />
a hundred years later.<br />
^^ "Took it by storm," said Dr. Morris Fishbein, <strong>The</strong> Medical Follies<br />
(New York, 1925), 21; t<strong>his</strong> may be a slight exaggeration.<br />
^^ Daily Cincinnati Gazette, January 1, 1849.<br />
^^ Louisville Journal in Columbus (Ohio) Daily Journal, August 2,<br />
1837.<br />
^^ Dr. Otto Juettner, Daniel Drake and His Followers<br />
1909), 95.<br />
(Cincinnati,<br />
^"^<br />
Colnmbus Daily Journal, July 25, 1837; Portsmouth Journal in<br />
(Cincinnati)<br />
20, 1824.<br />
National Republican and Ohio Political Register, January<br />
^^ Cincinnati Times, in Juettner, Daniel Drake, 93.<br />
^^ Cincinnati Lancet and Observer, I (1858), 442-3.<br />
^^Ibid., 400-1.<br />
^^<br />
<strong>The</strong> Worcester and Philadelphia editions of 1804 and 1806 carried<br />
the title Domestic Medicine: or a Valuable Treatise on the Prevention<br />
and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines. With an Appendix,<br />
containing a new Dispensatory, for the Use of Private Practitioners.<br />
To which are added, observations on the diet of the common people;<br />
recommending a method of living less expensive and more conducive<br />
to health, than the present. Buchan was graduated at Edinburgh in 1761<br />
and began <strong>his</strong> lectures there in 1766. He became a fellow of the Royal<br />
College of Physicians in<br />
1772. Later years were spent in London where<br />
he published several other books on medicine and health.<br />
^^ Hugh P. Greeley, "Early Wisconsin Medical History," in Wisconsin<br />
Medical Journal, XX (1922), 5 58-69.
295<br />
NOTES: CHAPTER THREE<br />
^ T<strong>his</strong> instrument was in use in southern Ohio in the early 1830's but<br />
not in other parts of the state until after 1835. Dr. Howard Dittrick,<br />
"<strong>The</strong> Equipment, Instruments and Drugs of Pioneer Physicians of<br />
Ohio," Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLVIII, 3<br />
(July, 1939), 201-3.<br />
Dr. Drake in Cincinnati in 1830 was urging "such of our readers,<br />
by far the greater number, as have not yet given it a trial, the duty of<br />
doing so." He was not convinced of its superiority in all cases, however,<br />
and reported an instance of "one patient in whom the respiratory<br />
murmer was more audible and distinct, when heard by the application<br />
of the ear to the chest, than when hstened to through the cylinder."<br />
Laennec described the stethoscope as being composed of wood of medium<br />
density, a foot long and an inch and a quarter in diameter, preferably<br />
cylindrical, with a canal one-fifth the diameter. <strong>The</strong> instrument was<br />
equipped with a stopper which was used in certain cases. Ordinarily<br />
the shaft was made in two parts, although t<strong>his</strong> was for convenience in<br />
transporting rather than an essential to the functioning of the instrument.<br />
"A Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest in which they are<br />
described according to their anatomical characters; and their Diagnosis<br />
as established on a new principle by means of Acoustick instruments,<br />
with plates," translated from the French of Rene T. H. Laennec, M. D.,<br />
Paris edition of 1819, First American edition, Philadelphia, 1823, in<br />
Western Jotirnal, III (1830), 68-99.<br />
^ Dr. Robert Boal of Cincinnati, quoted by Juettner, Daniel Drake,<br />
87-8.<br />
^ Dr. John C. Reeve, "A Physician in Pioneer Wisconsin," in Wisconsin<br />
Magazine of History, III (1919-20), 308.<br />
* Dr. Morris Fishbein, "Some Physician's Fees," in Bulletin of the<br />
Society of Medical History of Chicago, II, 2 (1919), 181.<br />
^ Etolie T. Davis, "Memoir Ebenezer Grosvenor," in Michigan Pioneer<br />
and Historical Collections, XXXVIII (1912), 703; Fishbein, "Some<br />
Physician's Fees," 181.<br />
® Atlas and History of Franklin County (S. H. Beers and Company,<br />
Chicago, 1882), 95.<br />
"^<br />
Sangamo Journal, April 10, 1840.<br />
^ Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, LII, 4 (October-<br />
December, 1943), 318-9.<br />
^ Juettner, Daniel Drake, 96-7.<br />
i<br />
Dr. WilUam H. Wishard, in Indiana State Medical Society Transactions,<br />
1889, 12.<br />
11<br />
Ruth Hoppin, "Personal Recollection," Michigan Pioneer and Historical<br />
Collections, XXXVlll (1912), 414.<br />
12<br />
<strong>The</strong> best brief treatment of the emergence of modern medicine is in
296<br />
Chapter IX of Richard Harrison Shryock's <strong>The</strong> Development of Modem<br />
Medicine (Philadelphia, 1936).<br />
^^ Dr. John Hunter in I. G. Rosenstein, <strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Homeopathy<br />
(Louisville, 1840), 8-9.<br />
^^ Dr. Robert and Johanna Peter, <strong>The</strong> History of the Medical Department<br />
of Transylvania <strong>University</strong>, Filson Club Publications, XX (Louisville,<br />
1905 ) , 66. Jalap seems at times to have been even more feared than<br />
calomel. At a Mackinac party in 1769 the guests, including some who<br />
crashed the party, inbibed freely of a wine and brandy punch. When<br />
Dr. Daniel Morison, one of the hosts, told them that he had put in four<br />
ounces of jalap (a few grains was a good dose) some of the guests later<br />
broke into <strong>his</strong> house and gave him a bad beating. Dr. Morison's "Narrative"<br />
(Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public <strong>Library</strong>) as quoted<br />
in Milo M. Quaife, Lake Michigan (Indianapolis, 1944), 92-3.<br />
^^Dr. William H. Wishard, Indiana State Medical Society Transactions,<br />
1889, 14.<br />
^®Dr. Joel Pennington, ibid., 1873.<br />
^"^<br />
For illustration of the lancet most popularly used and an explanation<br />
of its use see Donald D. Shira, "Phlebotomy Lancet," in Ohio State<br />
Medical Journal, XXXV (1939), 66-7.<br />
^® Dr. T. B. Harvey, Indiana State Medical Society Transactions,<br />
1881, 2.<br />
^® Kansas City Star, September 22, 1929, in Missouri Historical<br />
Review, XXIY (1929-30), 329-30.<br />
^^ Western Lancet, V (1843-44), in Ohio State Medical Journal,<br />
XXXV (1939), 1329.<br />
^^ Margaret Lafever, "Story of Early Day Life in Michigan," Michigan<br />
Pioneer and Historical Collections, XXXVIII (1912), 675.<br />
22Baynard Rush Hall, <strong>The</strong> New Purchase (New York, 185 5), 254;<br />
J. Sellman to Captain Samuel Vance of eastern Indiana, undated letter<br />
(some time prior to 1827) , Vance Papers, Miscellaneous, Vol. I, William<br />
Henry Smith Memorial <strong>Library</strong>, Indianapolis, Indiana.<br />
^^ Juettner, Daniel Drake, 95.<br />
^* Dr. Wilson Hobbs, Indiana State Medical Society Transactions,<br />
1889, 24.<br />
^'^<br />
Dr. Joel Pennington, ibid., 1873.<br />
^® Address at Centennial Celebration of the College of Physicians and<br />
Surgeons, Columbia <strong>University</strong>, June 11, 1907, in Papers and Addresses,<br />
III (3 volumes, Baltimore, 1920), 292-3.<br />
^'^<br />
Dr. Howard Dittrick, "Introduction of Anesthesia into Ohio,"<br />
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, L (1941), 338 ff.<br />
-^ August Schachner, Ephraim McDowell, "Father of Ovariotomy"<br />
and Founder of Abdominal Surgery (Philadelphia, 1921) , 67. Mrs. Jane<br />
Todd Crawford, the patient, is buried at Graysville, Sullivan County,<br />
Indiana.
297<br />
^* Dr. John Richmond, "History of a SuccessfiJ Case of Caesarian<br />
Operation," Western Journal, III (1830), 485-9.<br />
^^ Dr. Bobbs's operation is reported in the Indiana State Medical Society<br />
Transactions, 1868; apparently no account of the Wolcott nephrectomy<br />
was written by the surgeon himself, but Dr. Charles L. Stoddard<br />
reported it in the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, VII<br />
(1861-62), 126 £f. See also Martin B. Tinker, "<strong>The</strong> First Nephrectomy<br />
and the First Cholecystotomy, with a sketch of <strong>The</strong> Lives of Doctors<br />
Erastus B. Wolcott and John S. Bobbs," Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin,<br />
XII, 125 (August, 1901), 247 ff.<br />
^^ Dr. Francis Randolph Packard, History of Medicine in the United<br />
States (2 volumes, New York, 1931), I, 480. <strong>The</strong> subject of surgery<br />
in Kentucky has been well treated in A. H. Barkley, Kentucky's "Pioneer<br />
Lithotomists (Cincinnati, 1913). See also Dr. Joseph Nathaniel<br />
McCormack, Some of the Medical Pioneers of Kentucky (Bowling<br />
Green, 1917).<br />
^^ "Medical and Surgical History of Elkhart Coimty," Indiana State<br />
Medical Society Transactions, 1875, 85 flF; Alfred <strong>The</strong>odore Andreas,<br />
History of Chicago (3 volumes, 1884-86), I, 465; B. F. Uran, "<strong>The</strong><br />
Names and a Brief History of Early Physicians of Kankakee County,"<br />
Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago, II, 2 (1919),<br />
183-90; Packard, History of Medicine, I, 482; Dr. W. T. S. Cornett,<br />
Indiana State Medical Society Transactions, 1874, 30.<br />
^^ Dr. Jesse S. Myer, Life and Letters of Dr. William Beaumont (St.<br />
Louis, 1912), 569. Two Beaumont notebooks, ably edited by Genevieve<br />
Miller of <strong>The</strong> Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine, have<br />
been published as Wm. Beaumont's Formative Years; Two Early Notebooks<br />
1811-1821 (New York, 1946). <strong>The</strong> influence of Dr. Beaumont's<br />
work on <strong>his</strong> medical contemporaries and successors has been ably treated<br />
by Dr. George Rosen, <strong>The</strong> Reception of William Beaumont's Discovery<br />
in Europe (New York, 1942).<br />
^'^<br />
Western JoJirnal, III (1830), 317-40.<br />
^'^Dr. W. H. Wishard thought that in 1825 in Indiana not over ten<br />
per cent of the physicians were graduates of medical colleges and not<br />
over twenty-five per cent had ever attended any lectures. Indiana State<br />
Medical Society Transactions, 1889. In Ohio it is estimated that the<br />
percentage of graduates rose from around ten to approximately twenty<br />
by 183 5. Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLVIII<br />
(1939), 190.<br />
^®Dr. Robert Peter, Transylvania <strong>University</strong>, Its Origin, Rise,<br />
Decline, and Fall, Filson Club Publications, XI (Louisville, 1896),<br />
18-20, 64. <strong>The</strong> later publication by Dr. Peter (edited posthumously by<br />
<strong>his</strong> daughter Johanna) <strong>The</strong> History of the Medical Department of<br />
Transylvania <strong>University</strong>, 405, gives 1796 as the date for the establishment<br />
of the Kentucky Academy.
298<br />
37 J. Christian Bay, "Dr. Daniel Drake, 1785-1852," Filson Club<br />
History Quarterly, VII (1933), 6-7. His differences of opinion with<br />
Dr. Dudley may not have been wholly responsible for Drake's resignation;<br />
it is possible that he may have recognized Lexington's lack of<br />
future as a medical center. Though it is often told, the story of the<br />
Drake-Dudley duel is given no credence by Juettner. According to the<br />
story, Drake was challenged by Dudley and at the critical moment<br />
refused to fight; <strong>his</strong> place was said to have been taken by Richardson.<br />
Juettner maintains that t<strong>his</strong> story was invented and circulated by Dr.<br />
Alban Gold Smith, Drake's bitter enemy. It is true, however, that a duel<br />
occurred between Dudley and Richardson, and that in the conflict Richardson<br />
was shot in the thigh (groin) and would have bled to death had<br />
Dudley not ligated <strong>his</strong> femoral (inguinal) artery. Richardson and<br />
Dudley afterwards became good friends. Dudley, "a fighting Southerner<br />
of the revolutionary type," is known to have had a fiery temper which<br />
was not at all conducive to amicable relations; Drake's temperament did<br />
not help matters much. Daniel Drake, 44.<br />
3^ Filson Club History Quarterly, VII (1933), 151. <strong>The</strong> Transylvania<br />
war of 1837-44 may be followed in the Kentucky Gazette, Lexington<br />
Observer and Reporter, Cincinnati and Louisville papers or in<br />
James C. Cross's Appeal to the Medical Profession (Louisville, 1846).<br />
3^ Dr. John Shaw Billings, speaking in later years of Dr. Drake.<br />
BilUngs began <strong>his</strong> medical education in Drake's Medical College of Ohio.<br />
He later "achieved excellence and gained distinction in no less than six<br />
different fields, in miHtary and public hygiene, in hospital construction<br />
and sanitary engineering, in vital and medical statistics, in medical<br />
bibhography and <strong>his</strong>tory, in the advancement of medical education and<br />
the condition of medicine in the United States and as civil administrator<br />
of unique ability." Of these accompUshments, the work for which he<br />
is probably best known is the creation of the Surgeon General's <strong>Library</strong><br />
and the institution of the Index Catalogue, accompanied by the monthly<br />
bibliography of medical literature, "Index Medicus."<br />
A more effusive estimate of Drake has been written by <strong>his</strong> biographer,<br />
Dr. Juettner: "In the medical <strong>his</strong>tory of the West one colossal figure<br />
looms up in the very foreground. It is of such gigantic proportions that<br />
all else appears accidental and merely Uke a part of the stage-setting.<br />
Even when viewed through the aisles of time at a distance of many<br />
decades it appears as large and distinct as it did when it first emerged<br />
in the center of the stage of events. It is the figure of him who was the<br />
Father of Western Medicine, one of the greatest physicians America<br />
has produced, a patriot of the truest blue, a nobleman by nature, a<br />
scholar by ceaseless toil, the peer of any of the Eastern <strong>pioneer</strong>s in<br />
medicine, the bearer of one of the most distinguished names in the<br />
intellectual <strong>his</strong>tory of our country—Daniel Drake." Daniel Drake, 8.<br />
^'^<br />
In later years Drake recaptured these early days in a delightful
299<br />
series of letters to <strong>his</strong> children; these were gathered up and in 1870<br />
published by <strong>his</strong> son Charles as Pioneer Life in Kentucky. A Series of<br />
Reminisceniial Letters from Daniel Drake, M.D., of Cincinnati, to <strong>his</strong><br />
ChiUreft (Cincinnati). <strong>The</strong>se letters are being republished by Henry<br />
Schuman, with a biographical foreword by J. Christian Bay.<br />
^^ It has been said that Daniel Drake was "predestined for the medical<br />
profession" by <strong>his</strong> father.<br />
Isaac Drake had met Dr. Goforth, one of the<br />
original party of emigrants from Nev/ Jersey, on the journey down the<br />
Ohio River. Half jokingly, half in earnest, he told Dr. Goforth that<br />
Daniel, then not quite three years old, should some day become a doctor,<br />
and that Dr. Goforth should be <strong>his</strong> teacher.<br />
*^ Juettner, Daniel Drake, 20.<br />
43 Ihid., 22.<br />
** Ibid., 24, for a facsimile of t<strong>his</strong> diploma.<br />
*^ That Drake had no intention of staying when he accepted the<br />
Jeflferson appointment might be inferred from <strong>his</strong> continuing to edit<br />
<strong>his</strong> Western Journal, published in Cincinnati, in which he stated more<br />
than once that <strong>his</strong> "associations are all in the West" and that he expected<br />
"to live on t<strong>his</strong> side of the mountains."<br />
^* Juettner, "Rise of Medical Colleges in the Ohio Valley," Ohio<br />
Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, XXII (1913), 488.<br />
<strong>The</strong> crisis in the Medical College of Ohio and the organization of the<br />
rival school is reviewed by Drake in the Wester! Journal, IX (1836),<br />
169-203. No doubt one of the weaknesses of the Medical College of<br />
Ohio was that it was not connected with any college or university; it<br />
was, as Drake said, "perhaps the only separate and independent medical<br />
school in the United States."<br />
^^ Dr. Emmet F. Horine, "A History of the Louisville Medical Institute<br />
and of the estabhshment of the <strong>University</strong> of Louisville and its<br />
School of Medicine 1833-1846," Filson Chth History Quarterly, VII<br />
(1933), 133-47; WiUiam Cassell Mallalieu, "Origins of the <strong>University</strong><br />
of Louisville," ibid., XII (1938), 34-5.<br />
4^ For full title and description see later in t<strong>his</strong> chapter.<br />
** Mrs. Alice GufFey Ruggles, "Unpublished Letters of Dr. Daniel<br />
Drake," Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLIX<br />
(1940), 203.<br />
^^Ibid., 210-11.<br />
^^ Howard A. Kelly and "Walter L. Barrage, Dictionary of American<br />
Medical Biography (New York, 1928), 784-5.<br />
^^ Ibid.; Packard, History of Medicine, II, 83 3-4; Lucius P. Henry<br />
Zeuch, History of Medical Practice in Illinois (Chicago, 1927), I,<br />
106-11; James Thomas Flexner, Doctors on Horseback (New York,<br />
1937), 154.<br />
°^ J. H. Walsh, "Early Medical Practice in the Illinois Country,"<br />
Illinois Medical Journal, XLVI (1924), 199; Zeuch, Medical Practice<br />
in Illinois, 543-53.
300<br />
•^^Zeuch, Medical Practice in Illinois, 396-406; Carl E. Black, "Illinois<br />
College Medical School," Bulletin of the Society of Medical History<br />
of Chicago, I, 2 (August, 1912), 171-95.<br />
^^ Rush Medical College became affiliated with the <strong>University</strong> of<br />
Chicago in 1898 and in 1924 was incorporated as its Medical Department.<br />
After June 1, 1942, its undergraduate courses were discontinued<br />
and it became Rush Graduate School of Medicine.<br />
•^^<br />
Packard, History of Medicine, II, 870-1.<br />
^^ Henry B. Favill, "Early Medical Days in Wisconsin," Bulletin of<br />
the Society of Medical History of Chicago, I (1911), 101-4; Packard,<br />
History of Medicine, II, 903-4.<br />
58 Isaac Reed, <strong>The</strong> Christian Traveler (New York, 1828), 224.<br />
'^^<br />
Juettner, "Rise of Medical Colleges," 489-90.<br />
®" Cincinnati National Republican and Ohio Political Register, January<br />
20, 1824.<br />
®^ A factor which helped to account for the small number of trained<br />
eastern physicians found in the <strong>Midwest</strong> was, of course, their relative<br />
scarcity even in the East, and the consequent esteem with which they<br />
were regarded. Few indeed were the trained physicians who would wish<br />
to give up a settled practice for a life in the "wilderness."<br />
^^ Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines (3 volumes,<br />
New York and Cambridge, 1930, 1938), I, 199.<br />
^^ For these see bibliographical note.<br />
^^ Drake's temporary acceptance of the weird fact of spontaneous<br />
combustion of the human body probably resulted from an article by<br />
M. Marc, published in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales. He translated<br />
and summarized the article in the Western Journal, II (1829),<br />
130-41. <strong>The</strong> Dictionnaire reported a number of "well authenticated"<br />
cases. Marc and others arrived at certain general conclusions: women<br />
were more subject to t<strong>his</strong> accident than men; the aged more susceptible<br />
than the young; inactive and fleshy ("polysarcous") persons were good<br />
subjects; heavy drinkers particularly good; most accidents of t<strong>his</strong> sort<br />
transpired in winter when the atmosphere was cold. Sparks caused by<br />
the "idio-electricity" in animals set off the naturally-produced hydrogen<br />
and its compounds. Drake commented that he was unable to say<br />
why more cases had been recorded on the Continent than in the United<br />
States. <strong>The</strong> fact that he recorded no cases in <strong>his</strong> Diseases of the Interior<br />
Valley might indicate that there were none.<br />
NOTES: CHAPTER FOUR<br />
^ In Rosenstein, <strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Homeopathy, 26.<br />
^ Dr. William H. Loppe, "Quacks and Quackery in Indiana," Indiana<br />
State Medical Society Transactions, 1883, 118.<br />
^ Dr. George Rowland, "Medical Legislation," ihid., 172.
301<br />
* For analysis of the six patented Thomsonian medicines see "<strong>The</strong><br />
Secret Six," Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, LII,<br />
4 (October-December, 1943), 3 50 flF.<br />
<strong>The</strong> idea of heat potencies of herbs was not new.<br />
William Turner in<br />
<strong>his</strong> Herbal of 1568 wrote: "<strong>The</strong>re are certain herbs, that are temperate,<br />
that is, of a mean quality or property between hot and cold, and are<br />
neither notably hot nor cold. And if any herb depart from the temperate<br />
herbs toward heat, and is sensible felt a little hot, it is called hot in<br />
the first degree; and if it be a Httle hotter, it is called hot in the second<br />
degree, as though it had been made two steps or departings from temperate.<br />
If an herb be very hot, it may be called hot in the third degree.<br />
If it be hot as it can be, then it is called hot in the fourth degree. And<br />
so ye may understand the degrees of cold, moist, and dry herbs." Dr.<br />
Sanford V. Larkey and Thomas Pyles, An Herbal [1525] (New York,<br />
1941), Introduction xx.<br />
^ For accounts presenting t<strong>his</strong> trial from both sides see Thomson,<br />
Narrative, 93-104, and Barton, Materia Medica, II, 188-95, quoting<br />
Tyng's Reports, VI, 134. In Boston in 1824 () Thomson published a<br />
pamphlet. Learned Quackery Exposed; or. <strong>The</strong>ory according to Art.<br />
As exemplified in the practice of the Fashionable Doctors of the present<br />
day, which contained a poem which he claimed to have written in<br />
Newburyport jail in 1809. T<strong>his</strong> poem had been circulated as a handbill,<br />
"as a looking-glass in which the <strong>doctors</strong> might see their own conduct<br />
and the effects of their medicine on patients in cases of pleurisy and<br />
fevers, when treated according to art."<br />
® T<strong>his</strong> was the first of the Thomsonian periodicals of any importance.<br />
Under the original title, it appeared with irregvdarity—sometimes<br />
weekly, sometimes trimonthly, but for the most part semimonthly<br />
—until 1837, when it became the Bofanico-Medical Recorder. In 1835<br />
Hersey withdrew to establish, also at Columbus, the Independent Botanico<br />
Register, which lasted only one year (to May, 1836). For a list of<br />
leading Botanic periodicals see bibliographical note.<br />
' On first glance it appears that Horton Howard was printing <strong>his</strong><br />
books after <strong>his</strong> death.<br />
Howard, the Thomsonian sales manager, died of<br />
cholera in 1833, but Horton J. Howard, the printer, was still operating.<br />
<strong>The</strong> third edition, with Columbus imprint, 1836, printed by Horton J.<br />
Howard carried, besides Horton Howard's preface to the first edition,<br />
a preface of W. Hance of Cincinnati. Hance spoke "in the name of<br />
present proprietors, the heirs of the late Dr. Howard."<br />
^Thomsonian Recorder, II, 11 (March 1, 1834), 174. Thomson prescribed<br />
for himself a somewhat similar treatment during the last days<br />
of <strong>his</strong> final illness. Report of Nathaniel S. Magoon, <strong>his</strong> attendant,<br />
Botanico-Medical Recorder, November, 1843, reprinted in Bidletin of<br />
the Lloyd <strong>Library</strong>, No. 11 (Reproduction Series No. 7), 86-9.<br />
» Ibid., n, 13 (March 29, 1834), 200.
302<br />
^® J. E. Carter, <strong>The</strong> Botanic Physician, . . . (Madisonville, Tennessee,<br />
1837), 8.<br />
^^ Columlnis (Ohio) Daily journal, July 13, 1837.<br />
^^ Medical Investigator, I (1847), 8.<br />
13 Ibid., 90.<br />
" Ibid., 54.<br />
^^Ibid., 38.<br />
i^Dr. A, Biggs,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Botanico Medical Reference Book, comprising<br />
the Ftindamental Principles of Life— the True <strong>The</strong>ory of Fever and<br />
Inflammation— <strong>The</strong> Union of Mind and Matter— the Instinct in Animals<br />
and the Mind in Man—Sanity and Insanity— Causes of Insanity,<br />
how Treated, &c. Also the <strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Medicine, upon<br />
Botanico-Medical Principles, A Materia Medica, containing a Description<br />
of the Yarioiis Articles Used. Pharmacy— Teaching the Mode of<br />
Preparing, Compotinding, and Preserving Medicines, with a Number of<br />
Recipes (Memp<strong>his</strong>, 1847), 99.<br />
1^ Medical Investigator, I, 3 84.<br />
1^ One concludes, from perusal of some of the students' lecture notes,<br />
that t<strong>his</strong> was one of the more important purposes of many of the lectures.<br />
In fact, the "Suggestions to Students" printed inside the front<br />
cover of Buchanan and Newton's Eclectic Medical Jonrnal,<br />
1853, carried<br />
the following: "<strong>The</strong> Materia Medica, as taught in the Institute . . .<br />
affords a<br />
large number of new and concentrated remedies, not known in<br />
the common practice." One is impressed by the wide discrepancy in the<br />
nature of the knowledge obtained by the student in anatomy and in<br />
materia medica: in the former field detailed and elaborate drawings of<br />
the human body and its parts; in the latter medicine lists and prescriptions<br />
for scores of medicines such as Anti-Bilious P<strong>ills</strong>, Alternative Powders,<br />
Vegetable Emetic, Pulmonary Powder, Rheumatic P<strong>ills</strong>, Anti<br />
Dyspeptic P<strong>ills</strong>, Female P<strong>ills</strong>, Cough P<strong>ills</strong>, Nervous P<strong>ills</strong>, Dieuretic<br />
Drops, Sudorific Tincture, etc., etc.—which revealed Uttle. Manuscripts<br />
of Dr. William A. Ashton, Franklin County, Indiana, in possession of<br />
the authors.<br />
NOTES: CHAPTER FIVE<br />
^A file in the Hering Laboratory, 1930-3 5, has been said to show<br />
twelve hundred references substantiating homeopathic doctrines in general<br />
practice from old school sources. Lucy Stone Hertzog, "Rise of<br />
Homeopathy," Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly,<br />
XLIX (1940), 336.<br />
^ T<strong>his</strong> volume ran to five editions. <strong>The</strong> second,<br />
1819, was much different<br />
from the first, but the next edition, 1824, was very similar to the<br />
second. Hahnemann says in <strong>his</strong> preface to the third edition that the<br />
translation of the preceding edition into French had been "a great help
303<br />
to the spread of the good cause in foreign lands." <strong>The</strong> fourth, of 1829,<br />
had some important variations from the text of its immediate predecessor,<br />
and the last, in 1833, contained several novelties, such as the theories<br />
of the "vital force," the belief that the action of drugs was due to their<br />
power of stimulating cells of the body to curative reactions, and of<br />
"the dynamisation of medicines."<br />
^ Dr. Frederick C. Waite, "Thomsonianism in Ohio," Ohio State<br />
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLIX (1940), 330.<br />
^ Hertzog, "Rise of Homeopathy," ibid., 332.<br />
^ See <strong>his</strong> review in Western Monthly Review, I (1827), 3 57. Also<br />
review of the pamphlet "New Views of Penitentiary Discipline and<br />
Moral Education and Reform," ibid.. Ill (1829), 50-6.<br />
^ Daily Cincinnati Gazette, January 3, 1849.<br />
^ Grace Adams and Edward Hutter, <strong>The</strong> Mad Forties<br />
(New York,<br />
1942), Chapter XI, give a clever account of these developments.<br />
^ <strong>The</strong>rapeutic Sarcognomy, A Scientific Exposition of the Mysterious<br />
Union of Soul, Brain and Body, and a New System of <strong>The</strong>rapeutic Practice<br />
without Medicine, by the Vital Nervaiira, Electricity and External<br />
Applications, Giving the only Scientific Basis for <strong>The</strong>rapeutic Magnetism<br />
and Electro-<strong>The</strong>rapeutics. Designed for the tise of Nervauric and<br />
Electric Practitioners, and also for intelligent families, for the prevention<br />
and cure of diseases, and moral and physical development of youth.<br />
^Ibid., 258-9.<br />
^^ In California in the 1930's Dr. Albert Abrams, licensed physician,<br />
hooked up a couple of cheap resistance boxes and an old Ford spark coil<br />
and announced to the world that he had a magic detector of such delicacy<br />
that he could tune in on the electronic vibrations which emanate<br />
from a drop of blood. Given a drop of blood from a human being and<br />
t<strong>his</strong> apparatus, one could determine exactly what the patient was suflFering<br />
from, if anything. Also whether he was Chinese or Jewish, Catholic<br />
or Presbyterian. Anmial Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1917,<br />
414.<br />
Somewhat less awe-inspiring, but more valid, is the work of Dr.<br />
Edgar Douglas Adrian, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who<br />
received a Nobel prize in physiology in 1932 for <strong>his</strong> experiments in<br />
measuring electrical impulses from, and locating images in, different<br />
portions of the brain, when stimulated by sight, sound, etc. <strong>The</strong> scientist<br />
modestly states, "<strong>The</strong> present technique of recording brain events,<br />
by oscillographs connected with electrodes on the head, is not likely to<br />
lead very far." Time, XLIII (May 8, 1944), 74. Perhaps it was just as<br />
well that Dr. Buchanan was not handicapped by modern apparatus.<br />
NOTES: CHAPTER SIX<br />
^ See Shryock, Development of Modern Medicine, Chapter EX.<br />
^Ibid., 160.
.<br />
304<br />
» Western Journal, HI (1830), 394-5.<br />
**<br />
Well presented, for example, in an article on the honor of the profession,<br />
danger of quacks, weakness of the law, etc., in the Springfield,<br />
Illinois, Sangamo Journal, May 10, 1834.<br />
6 July 17.<br />
"^Ravenna (Ohio) Courier, August 20, 1825.<br />
* "An Essay on Bilious Fever and Calomel etc.," reviewed in Western<br />
Monthly Review, II (1829), 465. Hunn was editor 1829-30, of the<br />
Medical Friend of the People (Danville and Lexington)<br />
^ Juettner, Daniel Drake, 392.<br />
^^ Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, January 11, 1832.<br />
^^ Michigan by law in 1844 and 1846 gave the keepers of county<br />
prisons the right to deliver bodies of executed criminals with no relatives<br />
or friends, to local medical societies; also, the bodies of criminals<br />
who died in state prisons might be turned over to medical societies.<br />
Exclusive privileges to these bodies were to go to the Medical Department<br />
of the <strong>University</strong>, when organized. How well these provisions<br />
took care of needs is not known.<br />
^^ "An Introductory Address, intended as a defense of the Medical<br />
Profession against the charge of Irreligion and Infidehty, with thoughts<br />
on the truth and importance of Natural Religion; delivered November<br />
2d, 1824." Reviewed in Western Monthly Review, I (1827), 155 ff.<br />
Caldwell's Introdtictory Address on Independence of Intellect was published<br />
at Lexington in 1825. He also defended the teaching of Natural<br />
Religion at Transylvania in a written debate with Dr. James Fishback,<br />
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lexington. <strong>The</strong> Correspondence<br />
Between Dr. Charles Caldwell— and Dr. James Fishback, etc., was<br />
printed at Lexington in 1826, as was Caldwell's Medical and Physical<br />
Memoirs. His Autobiography was published in Philadelphia in 185 5, the<br />
second year after <strong>his</strong> death.<br />
** Dr. Robert G. Patterson, "<strong>The</strong> Role of the 'District* as a Unit in<br />
Organized Medicine in Ohio." Ohio State Archaeological and Historical<br />
Quarterly, XLIX (1940), 370.<br />
"^^<br />
Franklin Chronicle (Worthington, Ohio), July 2, 1821.<br />
^^ Ohio Laws, 1832-33, 17.<br />
***<br />
Letter in reply to criticism in Ohio State Journal, December 28,<br />
1826.<br />
" Laws of the State of Indiana (1816-17), Ch. XXXI, 161-5.<br />
^® <strong>The</strong>re is some uncertainty regarding what was the first actively<br />
functioning medical society in the Middle West. Dr. Hubbard Madison<br />
Smith maintains that the society organized at Vincennes "some time<br />
prior to 1818" was the first in the Northwest. "Medicine in the Northwest<br />
Territory: A Contribution to the Early Medical History of<br />
Indiana," Indiana State Medical Society Transactions, 1906, 338 ff.
" Laws of the State of Indiana (1830), Ch. XLIX, 91-3.<br />
^^ Illinois Intelligencer, November 18, 182 J.<br />
305<br />
^^ Medicine and Its Development in Kentucky (Works Progress<br />
Administration Project, Louisville, 1940), 79.<br />
^^ Dr. Irvin Abell, "<strong>The</strong> Heritage of Kentucky Medicine," Kentucky<br />
Medical Journal, XXIV (1926), 477.<br />
^^ Henry B. Favill, "Early Medical Days in Wisconsin," Bulletin of<br />
the Society of Medical History of Chicago, I (1911), 100; Journal of<br />
the American Medical Association, XLIV (1905), 1217.<br />
^* Dr. J. T. Reeve, in State Board of Health of Illinois Fifth Annual<br />
Report (Springfield, 1883), 154.<br />
NOTES: CHAPTER SEVEN<br />
^ Indiana Journal, August 7, 1835.<br />
^George W. Sloan, writing of the 1840*s in "Fifty Years of Pharmacy,"<br />
Indiana Historical Society 'Publications, HI (1903), 335.<br />
* Albert E. Ebert, "Early History of the Drug Trade of Chicago,"<br />
Illinois Historical Society Transactions, 1903, 245.<br />
^Kentucky Yeoman (Frankfort), March, 1845.<br />
^ Samples of contents of Ohio <strong>doctors</strong>' saddle bags in the period prior<br />
to 1840 are listed by Dr. Howard Dittrick, "<strong>The</strong> Equipment, Instruments<br />
and Drugs of Pioneer Physicians of Ohio," Ohio State Archaeological<br />
and Historical Qtiarterly, XLVIII (1939), 208-9. J. J. Tyler, in<br />
"Dr. Luther Spellman, Early Physician of the Western Reserve," Ohio<br />
State Medical Journal, XXXIV (April, 1938), lists the following drugs<br />
as having been purchased by a doctor in Canfield, Youngstown, and<br />
Pittsburgh between 1811 and 1816: opium, senna, sulphur, castor oil,<br />
Glauber's salts, ipecac, lead acetate, orange peel, magnesia, potassium<br />
bitartrate, rhubarb, gmger, calamine, ginseng, citrine ointment, oil<br />
sweet almonds, ferrous sulphate, gulac, Peruvian bark, calomel, saltpeter,<br />
wormwood, rosin, cantharides, Bergundy pitch, balsam copaiba, mercurial<br />
ointment, gum ammoniac, aloes, camphor, myrrh, sweet spirit of<br />
nitre, serpentaria, zinc sulphate, alum, liquorice, steel filings, gum<br />
arable, calumba, tartar emetic, white arsenic, silver nitrate, sponge,<br />
jalap, asafoetida, anise, gentian, cloves, squ<strong>ills</strong>, kino, creta preparata,<br />
juniper, red precipitate of mercury, turpentine, dyanthos, peppermint,<br />
spigelia, lavender, nitric acid, muriatic acid, cassia, castile soap, and<br />
olive oil.<br />
^ June 18, November 6, 1840.<br />
''Fort Wayne Times and Peoples Press, August 21, September 11,<br />
1847.<br />
^Liberty Hall, January 13, 1806.<br />
^ Ibid., July 18, 1810; May 1, 1811.<br />
^® Also Illinois Intelligencer, September, 1825, etc.
306<br />
^^ Western Sun,<br />
1824, June-December; Hamilton Intelligencer and<br />
Advertiser, May, 1824, etc., etc.<br />
^2 Daniel Drake, "<strong>The</strong> People's Doctors," Western Journal, III<br />
(1830), 416; Gunn, Domestic Medicine (Springfield, 1836 edition),<br />
635-6.<br />
^^ See Chapter II.<br />
^* Also, according to the title page, "Member of the Medical Societies<br />
of Cincinnati and Lexington; the Philadelphia Society and Lyceum of<br />
New York; the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; the<br />
American Antiquity Society of "Worcester and Nashville; the Kentucky<br />
Institute, &c; and of several learned Societies of Europe, in Paris, Bruxelles,<br />
Vienna, Bonn, Florence, Naples, &c."<br />
^^ William Salmon, Professor of Physic, <strong>The</strong> Compleat English Physician,<br />
or, the Druggists Shop Opened (London, 1693). Salmon prescribed<br />
for eye trouble: Ashes of a Cat's Head, white vitriol and<br />
Saccharum Saturni mixed with honey. His "Elixir Universale, Not<br />
particular for any Distemper" was made of Rex Metallorum, Pouder of<br />
Lyons Heart, Filings of a Unicorn Horn, Ashes of a whole Chameleon,<br />
Bark of Witch-Hazel, Earth Worms ("a score"). Dried Man's Brains,<br />
and Egyptian Onions, mixed in Spirits Universalis.<br />
i« Quoted in Western Journal, III (1830), 459.<br />
^"^<br />
Richard Ellsworth Call, <strong>The</strong> Life and Writings of Rafinesque,<br />
Filson Club Publications, No. X (Louisville, 1895), 51-2.<br />
18 June 11, 1829.<br />
1* Ohio Farmer (Batavia), August 1, October 1, 1835.<br />
20 Western Sun, July 6, 1826.<br />
21 Portsmouth Journal in (Cincinnati) National Republican and<br />
Ohio Political Register, January 20, 1824.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE<br />
Since most of the important medical books used in t<strong>his</strong><br />
study are identified in the text and notes, t<strong>his</strong> bibHographical<br />
sketch is largely supplementary, and intended in part<br />
to round out a brief guide to the study of early middle<br />
western medicine.<br />
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AIDS: Two articles which provide<br />
an excellent introduction to the study of source<br />
materials in the medical <strong>his</strong>tory of the United States are<br />
Richard H. Shryock, "Medical Sources and the Social Historian,"<br />
American Historical Review, LXI (April, 1936),<br />
458-73; and Philip D. Jordan, "Some Bibliographical and<br />
Research Aids to American Medical History," Ohio State<br />
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, L (December,<br />
A Handbook of Medical <strong>Library</strong> Practice, edited<br />
1941), 305-25. <strong>The</strong> best brief guide to bibliographical collections<br />
is<br />
by Janet Doe for the Medical <strong>Library</strong> Association (Chicago,<br />
1943). A list of about a thousand medical titles is also<br />
included in t<strong>his</strong> work. <strong>The</strong> most complete general bibliography<br />
in any of the <strong>his</strong>tories of medicine is that in Garrison.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus of the American<br />
Medical Association (1927— )<br />
[with its predecessors,<br />
the Index Medietas and Quarterly Cufnulative Index to<br />
Current Medical Literature], and the comprehensive<br />
Index-catalog of the <strong>Library</strong> of the Surgeon General's<br />
Office, United States Army, are indispensable bibliographical<br />
tools for the study of medical <strong>his</strong>tory.<br />
GENERAL: Histories of medicine which have been found
308<br />
useful for background, as well as for occasional specific<br />
facts, are J. H. Bass, Outlines of the History of Medicine<br />
(English translation by H. E. Handerson, New York,<br />
1889); Arturo Castiglioni, A History of Medicine (English<br />
translation and edition by E. B. Krumbhaar, New<br />
York, 1941); Fielding H. Garrison, An Introduction to<br />
the History of Medicine (fourth edition, Philadelphia,<br />
1929) \ Samuel D. Gross, History of American Medical<br />
Literature from 1776 to the Present Time (Philadelphia,<br />
1875); Francis R. Packard, A History of Medicine (two<br />
volumes. New York, 1931); Richard H. Shryock, <strong>The</strong><br />
Developfnent of Modern Medicine (Philadelphia, 1936);<br />
Henry E. Sigerist, American Medicine (English translation<br />
by Hildegard Nagel, New York, 1934); W. M. and<br />
M. S. C. Smallwood, Natural History and the American<br />
Mind (New York, 1941). Henry Burnell Shafer, <strong>The</strong><br />
American Medical Profession, 1783 to 1850 (Columbia<br />
<strong>University</strong> Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law,<br />
No. 417, New York, 1936), is especially good on early<br />
medical education in the United States. Published too late<br />
for use in t<strong>his</strong> study is William Frederick Norwood, Medical<br />
Education in the United States before the Civil War<br />
(Philadelphia, \9AA), a scholarly and valuable work.<br />
Howard A. Kelly and Edward L. Burrage, Dictionary<br />
of American Medical Biography (New York, 1928), is<br />
convenient for ready reference to biographical data, but<br />
must be checked for details. Additional material is contained<br />
in earlier compilations by these authors: Kelly, A<br />
Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography, coinprising<br />
the lives of eininent deceased physicians and stirgeons froW'<br />
1610-1910 (two volumes, Philadelphia, 1912), and Kelly<br />
and Burrage, American Medical Biographies (Baltimore,<br />
1920). Older biographical works are Richard F. Stone,<br />
Biography of Erninent American 'Physicians and Surgeons<br />
(Indianapolis, 1894); William Biddle Atkinson, <strong>The</strong> Physicians<br />
and Surgeons of the United States (Philadelphia,<br />
1878) ; Samuel D. Gross, Lives of Eminent American Physicians<br />
and Surgeons of the Nineteenth Century (Philadel-
309<br />
phia, 1861), and Autobiography with Sketches of His<br />
Contemporaries (Philadelphia, 1887); James Thacher,<br />
American Medical Biography (two volumes, Boston,<br />
1828); and Stephen West WiUiams, American Medical<br />
Biography (Greenfield, Massachusetts, 1845). A fairly recent<br />
popular, yet useful series of sketches is presented by<br />
James T. Flexner, Doctors on Horseback, Pioneers of<br />
American Medicine (New York, 1937). Frank J. Jirka,<br />
American Doctors of Destiny (Chicago, 1940), contains<br />
chapters on Drake, McDowell, and other western <strong>doctors</strong>.<br />
Among the state medical <strong>his</strong>tories of varying value are:<br />
C. B. Burr, Medical History of Michigan (two volumes,<br />
Minneapolis, 1930); G. W. H. Kemper, Medical History<br />
of Indiana (Indianapolis, 1913); Lucius P. Henry Zeuch,<br />
(one volume pub-<br />
A History of Medical Practice in Illinois<br />
Hshed, Chicago, 1927); Medicine and Its Development in<br />
Kentucky (W.P.A. Medical Historical Research Project,<br />
Louisville, 1940); J. N. McCormack, Some of the<br />
Medical Pioneers of Kentucky (Bowling Green, 1917);<br />
E. J. Goodwin, A History of Medicine in Missouri (St.<br />
Louis, 1905); M. A. Goldstein, One Hundred Years of<br />
Medicine and Surgery in Missotiri (St. Louis, 1900) ; A<br />
Collection of Source Material Covering A Century of<br />
Medical Progress, 1834-1934 (Ohio State <strong>University</strong> Medical<br />
School, Blanchester, Ohio, 1934); D. S. Fairchild,<br />
History of Medicine in Iowa (one volume published, Des<br />
Moines, 1927); and <strong>The</strong>odore Diller, Pioneer Medicine in<br />
Western Pennsylvania (New York, 1927).<br />
<strong>The</strong>se may be supplemented by J. N. Hyde, Early Medical<br />
Chicago (Chicago, 1879); History of Medicine and<br />
Surgery and Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago (Chicago<br />
Medical Society, Chicago, 1922) ; L. F. Frank, <strong>The</strong> Medical<br />
History of Milwaukee, 1834-1914 (Milwaukee, 1915);<br />
Otto Juettner, Daniel Drake and His Followers (Cincinnati,<br />
1909), which is in effect a medical <strong>his</strong>tory of early<br />
Cincinnati; and Howard Dittrick, Pioneer Medicine in<br />
the Western Reserve (Cleveland, 1932).<br />
<strong>The</strong> standard <strong>his</strong>tories of the states of the region contain
310<br />
relatively little on the <strong>his</strong>tory of medicine. A notable exception<br />
is <strong>The</strong> History of the State of Ohio, edited by Carl F.<br />
Wittke (Columbus, 1941— ), particularly Volume II, <strong>The</strong><br />
Frontier State, 1803-1825, by William T. Utter, and Volume<br />
III, <strong>The</strong> Passing of the Frontier, 1825-1850, by Francis<br />
P. Weisenburger. More useful, on the whole, are the numerous<br />
local and county <strong>his</strong>tories, some of which give space<br />
to accounts of early medical <strong>his</strong>tory as well as biographies<br />
of <strong>doctors</strong>.<br />
STATE PUBLICATIONS AND HISTORICAL<br />
PERIODICALS: <strong>The</strong> state <strong>his</strong>torical society publications<br />
contain much material on <strong>pioneer</strong> life. Particularly valuable<br />
are the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections<br />
(Lansing, 1874-1915); Illinois State Historical Society<br />
Transactions (Springfield, 1900 — ); Wisconsin Historical<br />
Society Collections (Madison, 1855 — ); and Indiana Historical<br />
Society Publications (Indianapolis, 1897 — ).<br />
Likewise the <strong>his</strong>tory magazines: Illinois State Historical<br />
Society Journal (Springfield, 1908 — ); Missouri Historical<br />
Review (Columbia, 1906 — Indiana Magazine ) of History<br />
;<br />
(Indianapolis and Bloomington, 1905— ); Register of<br />
the Kentucky State Historical Society (Frankfort,<br />
1903 — ); Filson Club History Quarterly (Louisville,<br />
1926— ); Michigan History Magazine (Lansing, 1917 — );<br />
Wisconsin Magazine of History (Menasha and Madison,<br />
1917 loiva Jotirnal of )<br />
History and Politics (Iowa City,<br />
;<br />
1903 — ). <strong>The</strong> Ohio State Archaeological and Historical<br />
Quarterly (Columbus, 1887 — ), 1939 to 1943, devoted<br />
one number each year to papers read before the annual<br />
m.eetings of the Committee on Archives and Medical History<br />
of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical<br />
Society.<br />
In these articles have been assem.bled valuable material<br />
on various phases of the medical <strong>his</strong>tory of the state.<br />
MEDICAL PERIODICALS AND PUBLICA-<br />
TIONS: Current periodicals which deal primarily with<br />
medical <strong>his</strong>tory are: Bulletin of the (Institute of the) History<br />
of Medicine (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Institute of<br />
the History of Medicine, edited by Henry E. Sigerist,<br />
1933 — Annals ) of Medical History (edited by Francis R.<br />
;
311<br />
Packard, New York, 1917-42) ; Bulletin of the Society of<br />
Medical History of Chicago (Chicago, 1911 — ). Medical<br />
Life was published by the American Society of Medical<br />
History (New York) from 1894 to 1938. <strong>The</strong> most recent<br />
periodical in the medical <strong>his</strong>tory field is Henry Schuman's<br />
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, a<br />
quarterly whose first number appeared in January, 1946.<br />
Journals of the state medical societies, such as: Illinois<br />
Medical Journal (Springfield, 1899 — ); Missouri State<br />
Medical Society Journal (St. Louis, 1904— ) Indiana State<br />
;<br />
Medical Association Journal (Ft. Wayne, Indianapolis,<br />
1908 — ); Kentucky Medical Journal (Bowling Green,<br />
1903 — ); Michigan State Medical Society Journal (Lansing,<br />
1902 — ); Wisconsiit Medical Journal (Milwaukee,<br />
1903 — ); Journal of the Iowa State Medical Society (Des<br />
Moines, 1911 — ); and Ohio State Medical Journal (Columbus,<br />
, 1905— ) contain articles on the early medical <strong>his</strong>tory<br />
of the respective states.<br />
Transactions of state medical societies, particularly in<br />
the earlier years, are sources of valuable <strong>his</strong>torical data.<br />
Those of the Ohio society date from 1846 to 1904; Indiana,<br />
1850 to 1907; Illinois, 1850 to 1898; Iowa, 1850 to 1858,<br />
followed by those of a later society, 1867 to 1905; Kentucky,<br />
1851 to 1902; Missouri, 1851 to 1852, followed by<br />
a new series, 1867 to 1903; Wisconsin, 1855 to 1902; and<br />
Michigan, 1867 to 1901. <strong>The</strong> early volumes of the American<br />
Medical Association Transactions from 1848 to 1852<br />
contained a number of essays in the form of reports on<br />
American medical literature. Other committee reports of<br />
the American Medical Association make it possible to study<br />
the status of the profession at any given time.<br />
<strong>The</strong> early eastern medical journals published some articles<br />
by western <strong>doctors</strong>, and others on subjects pertaining to<br />
western medicine. Besides the Medical Repository (See<br />
Chapter III), important eastern publications were: the<br />
Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal (1804-08),<br />
which was edited by Professor Benjamin Smith Barton.<br />
T<strong>his</strong> periodical concerned itself with zoology and botany<br />
as well as medicine. In 1804 John Redman Coxe, professor
312<br />
of chemistry at the <strong>University</strong> of Pennsylvania, started the<br />
Philadelphia Medical Museum, which continued through<br />
1809, and then began a new series, 1810-11. <strong>The</strong> Eclectic<br />
Repertory and Analytical Review was conducted by an<br />
association of physicians for ten years, from 1810 to 1820,<br />
then merged into the American Medical Recorder which<br />
lasted until 1824. <strong>The</strong> Eclectic Repertory in October, 1816,<br />
and October, 1818, published the important accounts of<br />
Dr. Ephraim McDowell's ovariotomies.<br />
In 1820 Dr. Nathaniel Chapman founded the quarterly<br />
Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences.<br />
In 1827 Dr. Isaac Hays became virtual editor of the journal;<br />
late in the year its name was changed to the American<br />
Journal of the Medical Sciences. Dr. Hays continued as<br />
the editor for more than fifty years; when he died in 1879<br />
<strong>his</strong> son took over. <strong>The</strong> American Journal is still in existence.<br />
Philadelphia's later medical periodicals included: the<br />
North Americait Medical and Surgical Journal, a quarterly<br />
which published twelve volumes from 1826 to 1831; the<br />
American Medical Intelligencer, a monthly which was in<br />
existence from 1837 to 1842; the American Journal of<br />
PharTnacy, oldest pharmaceutical journal in the English<br />
language, which ran from 1825 to 1835 as the Journal of<br />
the Philadelphia College of PharTnacy, then in 1 8 3 5 adopted<br />
the name which it now bears.<br />
<strong>The</strong> New York Medical and Physical Journal was issued<br />
from 1822 to 1830, and the New York Journal of Medicine<br />
from 1843 to 1860. Baltimore's Dr. Tobias Watkins in<br />
1808-09 published one volume of the Baltim^ore Medical<br />
and Physical Recorder, and from January to December,<br />
1811, Dr. Nathaniel Potter was editing the Baltimore Medical<br />
and Philosophical Lyceum. <strong>The</strong> Baltimore Monthly<br />
Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 1830-31, was followed<br />
by the Balti^nore Medical and Surgical Journal and Review,<br />
which ran from October, 1833, to September, 1834, under<br />
that title, then became the North American Archives of<br />
Medical and Surgical Science, and continued for another<br />
year. <strong>The</strong> New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery,
313<br />
and Collateral Branches of Science (1812-26) became in<br />
1827 the New England Medical Kevieiu and Journal. T<strong>his</strong><br />
united in October, 1827, with the Boston Medical Intelligencer<br />
(1823-28) to form the Boston Medical and Surgical<br />
Journal which still exists as the New England Journal of<br />
Medicine.<br />
Of the western professional periodicals most valuable is<br />
the Western Journal of the Medical and 'Physical Sciences<br />
(Cincinnati, 1828-38). Others which contain useful materials<br />
are: Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery<br />
(Louisville, 1838-55); Transylvania Journal of Medicine<br />
and the Associate Sciences (Lexington, 1828-39); Western<br />
Lancety etc. (Cincinnati, 1842-1916) ; Illinois Medical and<br />
Surgical Journal^ etc. (Chicago, 1844-89) ; Peninsular and<br />
Independent Medical Journal, etc. (Ann Arbor and Detroit,<br />
1853-60) ; and St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal<br />
(St. Louis, 1843-61; 1864-1907).<br />
NEWSPAPERS: Scattered through the contemporarynewspapers<br />
is a considerable amount of medical <strong>his</strong>tory:<br />
accounts of epidemics, articles on health, household "receipts,"<br />
folk <strong>cures</strong>, discussions on medical education, anecdotes,<br />
advertisements of medical schools, patent medicines,<br />
etc. From their exchanges the papers copied widely from<br />
eastern papers, American, and even European periodicals.<br />
In the preparation of t<strong>his</strong> study the authors have drawn<br />
heavily upon most of the important extant newspaper files<br />
of the states north of the Ohio River prior to 1840, upon<br />
scattered files of adjacent states for the same period, and<br />
upon representative papers for the whole region from 1840<br />
to 1860. Among the more important papers used, which<br />
were published over a considerable period of time, were:<br />
Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette; Cincinnati Gazette;<br />
National Republican and Ohio Political Register (Cincinnati)<br />
; Western Intelligencer and Columbus Gazette; Ohio<br />
State Journal {Cohxmbus) ; Ohio StatesTnan (Columbus);<br />
Delaware Patron and Franklin Chronicle (Delaware);<br />
Piqua Gazette, etc.; <strong>The</strong> Supporter (Chillicothe); Scioto
;<br />
314<br />
Gazette (Chillicothe); St.<br />
Clairsville Gazette; <strong>The</strong> Miami<br />
Intelligencer (Hamilton); Portsmouth Gazettej etc.;<br />
Western Herald and Steubenville Gazette; Western Courier<br />
(Ravenna); Cleveland Herald; Cleveland Gazette;<br />
Cleveland Advertiser; Detroit Gazette; Detroit Journal<br />
and Michigan Advertiser; Northwestern Journal (Detroit);<br />
<strong>The</strong> Free Press (Detroit); Western Sun (Vincennes);<br />
Indiana Republican (Madison); Republican and<br />
Banner (Madison); Madison Courier; Indiana State Journal<br />
(Indianapolis); Indiana State Sentinel (Indianapolis);<br />
Richmond Palladiu^n; Democratic Pharos (Logansport)<br />
Logansport Telegraph; St. Joseph Valley Register (South<br />
Bend); Fort Wayne Times; Wabash Courier (Terre<br />
Haute); Illinois Intelligencer (Kaskaskia and Vandalia);<br />
Edwardsville Spectator; Illinois Advocate (Edwardsville<br />
and Vandalia); Illinois State Register (Springfield); Sangamo<br />
Journal, etc. (Springfield) ;<br />
Quincy Whig; <strong>The</strong> Galenian;<br />
Chicago American; Chicago Democrat; Chicago<br />
Daily Journal; Wisconsin Free Press (Green Bay); Wisconsin<br />
Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser;<br />
Green Bay Intelligencer (Navarino and Green Bay) ; Belmont<br />
Gazette; Milwaukee Sentinel; Milwaukee Advertiser;<br />
Wisconsin Enquirer (Madison); Wisconsin Democrat<br />
(Green Bay); Miners^ Free Press (Mineral Point); Kentucky<br />
Yeoman (Frankfort); Louisville Herald; Louisville<br />
Journal; Lexington Intelligencer; St. Louis Republican.<br />
HOME REMEDIES AND DOMESTIC MEDI-<br />
CINE: <strong>The</strong> herb and root recipes have been collected from<br />
various domestic -medicine books, the more important of<br />
which are discussed in the text, and from newspapers,<br />
<strong>pioneer</strong> reminiscences, manuscripts, and articles on folklore.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se check with compilations from interviews and<br />
written communications, such as Elzia G. Rogers, Early<br />
Folk Medical Practice in Tennessee (Carthage, Tennessee,<br />
1941), and Pauline M. Black, Nebraska Folk Cures (Lincoln,<br />
Nebraska, 1935).<br />
Herbal practice dates from primitive man. In Egypt the
315<br />
Edwin Smith and the Ebers papyri reveal herbal practices<br />
of the second millennium B.C. Both probably drew upon<br />
earlier sources. For a summary of early Egyptian papyri<br />
see Dr. Logan Clendening, Source Book of Medical History<br />
(New York, 1942). Indo-Aryan herbal medicine was well<br />
systematized before the Christian era. Charaka about 100<br />
A.D. classified five hundred herbs; Susrata (fifth century)<br />
listed seven hundred sixty.<br />
A brief introduction to herbal medicine may be had in<br />
three articles by Arturo Castiglioni, "Magic Plants in Primitive<br />
Medicine," "Herbs in the Medicine of Eastern Peoples<br />
and of the American Indians," and "Herbals from Antiquity<br />
to the Renaissance," in Ciba Symposia (Ciba Pharmaceutical<br />
Products Inc., Summit, New Jersey, 1939 — ),<br />
V, Nos. 5 and 6 (August-September, 1943). Eleanor<br />
Sinclair Rhode, Old English Herbals (London, 1922) \<br />
A. C. Klebs, A Catalogue of Early Herbals (Lugano,<br />
1925) ; and Agnes Arber, Herbals, <strong>The</strong>ir Origins and Evolution<br />
(Cambridge, 1938), are standard works on herbals.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>his</strong>tory of early English herbals is developed in<br />
H. M. Barlow, "Old English Herbals, 1525-1640," Proceedings<br />
of the Royal Society of Medicine, Section on History<br />
of Medicine, VI (1913), and in the introduction to An<br />
Herbal [Ban ekes's Herbal 1525], edited by Dr. Sanford V.<br />
Larkey and Thomas Pyles (New York, 1941). Banckes^s<br />
Herbal, probably compiled from earlier works, was the first<br />
book printed in England which was devoted exclusively to<br />
herbs. It became the most popular of British herbals and<br />
went through at least twenty editions. Henry S. Wellcome,<br />
Ancient Cymric Medicine (London, 1903), sketches the<br />
plant and folk <strong>cures</strong> of the Druids and the one-hundredseventy-five-plant<br />
materia medica of the "Welsh Myddfai<br />
physicians of the late fifteenth century. Margaret B.<br />
Freeman, in Herbs for the Mediaeval Household (Metropolitan<br />
Museum of Art, New York, 1943), has assembled a<br />
selected number of recipes and <strong>cures</strong>, largely from the<br />
Hortus Sanitatis or Gart der Gesundheit (published by<br />
Peter Schoeffer, Mainz, 1485).
316<br />
<strong>The</strong> first American herbal, <strong>The</strong> Badianiis Manuscript,<br />
was written and probably illustrated by an Aztec Indian,<br />
Martin de la Cruz, in 1552, and translated into Latin by a<br />
mission colleague, Badianus. In 1929 the manuscript was<br />
found in the Vatican <strong>Library</strong>. Translated and annotated by<br />
Emily Walcott Emmart, it was published with one hundred<br />
eighteen color plates by the Johns Hopkins Press, 1940.<br />
Through t<strong>his</strong> work comparisons may be made with herbal<br />
practice of Europe and of other American Indians.<br />
also H. W. Youngken, "Drugs of the North American<br />
Indians," American Journal of 'Pharmacy, Volumes XCVI<br />
andXCVII (1924-25).<br />
CHARM CURES: <strong>The</strong> Hterature of folk medicine is<br />
extensive. Between the Ebers papyrus of about 1550 B.C.,<br />
recipe for restoring hair on a bald head by means<br />
with its<br />
of an ointment of lion-hippopotamus-crocodile-serpentibex<br />
fat, to the latest pamphlet on the same subject, hundreds<br />
of books have been written on magic, necromancy,<br />
"Egyptian Secrets," witchcraft, hexadukt'r, powwowing,<br />
and the like.<br />
Vulture medicine of the period of Pliny, Dioscorides, and<br />
Sextus came down by way of such documents as the<br />
Epistula Yulturis, an eighth-century Paris manuscript,<br />
medieval handbooks, and early modern compilations, such<br />
as Pictorius's Medicinae . . . Seu Leporarium Quorundam<br />
Animalium Quadrupedu-m etc. (Basel, 1560), Conrad<br />
Gesner's Historia Animalium (Zurich, 1551-58), and<br />
Lovell's Compleai History of Animals and Minerals (Oxford,<br />
1660). It was kept alive in books on medicines and<br />
drugs—Becher's 'Parnassus Medicinalis lllustrattis (Ulm,<br />
1663), Pomet's Histoire Generale des Drogues (Paris,<br />
1694). and Chatenier's Histoire . . . des Medicaments<br />
(Paris, 1871).<br />
Similar vulture and animal <strong>cures</strong> developed among the<br />
Indians of Peru, Mexico, and the Cherokees of North<br />
America. Besides the article by Loren MacKinney cited<br />
in the footnotes, see Wilton Marion Krogman, "Medical<br />
See
317<br />
Practices and Diseases of the Aboriginal American Indians,"<br />
aba Symposia, I (April, 1939); E. Stone, Medicine<br />
among the American Indians (New York, 1932);<br />
J. Mooney and F. M. Olbrechts, <strong>The</strong> Swimmer Manuscript:<br />
Cherokee Sacred Formulas and Medicinal 'Prescriptions<br />
(Bulletin 99, Bureau American Ethnology, Washington,<br />
1932); and William T. Corlett, <strong>The</strong> Medicine Man of the<br />
American Indian (Springfield, Illinois, 1935).<br />
William George Black, Folk Medicine, A Chapter in the<br />
History of Culture (London, 1883), covers the subject in<br />
general, as does Howard Wilcox Haggard, Devils, Drugs<br />
and Doctors (New York, 1929).<br />
<strong>The</strong> folk beliefs of the Pennsylvania Germans have been<br />
rather thoroughly studied, and fortunately so, for no group<br />
was more important in supplying folk medicine to the<br />
Middle West. <strong>The</strong> most complete studies are Edwin Miller<br />
Fogel, Beliefs and Stiperstitions of the Pennsylvania Germans<br />
(Philadelphia, 1915), and Thomas R. Brendle and<br />
Claude W. Unger, Folk Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans,<br />
monograph of the Pennsylvania German Society,<br />
XLV (Norristown, Pennsylvania, 1935). Shorter studies<br />
are William J.<br />
Hoffman, "Folk Medicine of the Pennsylvania<br />
Germans," American Philosophical Society Proceedings,<br />
XXVI (1889); "Folk Lore of the Pennsylvania<br />
Germans," Journal of American Folklore, I<br />
(1888), and II<br />
(1889); John Baer Stout, <strong>The</strong> Folk-Lore of the Pennsylvania<br />
German, Pennsylvania German Society Proceedings,<br />
XXIII Supplement (1915) ; David E. Lick and Thomas R.<br />
Brendle, "Plant Names and Plant Lore among the Pennsylvania<br />
Germans," ibid., XXXIII (1922); J. G. Owens,<br />
"Folk-Lore from Buffalo Valley,<br />
Central Pennsylvania,"<br />
Journal of American Folklore, FV (1891); Emma Gertrude<br />
White, "Folk-Lore among Pennsylvania Germans," ibid.,<br />
X (1897).<br />
In 1930 Ammon Monroe Aurand edited and reprinted<br />
(Harrisburg) John George Hohman's Long Lost Friend or<br />
Book of Pow-Wows, "A Collection of Mysterious and<br />
Invaluable Arts and Remedies; for Man as Well as Animals;
318<br />
with many Proofs of their Virtues and efficacy in healing<br />
diseases; etc., the greater part of which was never pubUshed<br />
until they appeared in print for the first time in the United<br />
States in the year 1820." Of t<strong>his</strong> book it has been said that<br />
it was "Next to the Holy Bible a source of more satisfaction<br />
and comfort to the Pennsylvania 'Dutch' and many others<br />
throughout the entire United States, than possibly any<br />
other known book." Aurand also published Popular Home<br />
Remedies and Superstitions of the Pennsylvania Germans<br />
(Harrisburg, 1941), and Little Known Facts about the<br />
Witches in our Hair (Harrisburg, 1938).<br />
Interesting for purposes of comparison are D. L. and<br />
L. B. Thomas, Kentucky Superstitions (Princeton, New<br />
Jersey, 1920); Charles B. Wilson, "Notes on Folk Medicine,"<br />
Journal of Afnerican Folklore, XXI (1908);<br />
Gertrude C. Davenport, "Folk Cures from Kansas," ibid.,<br />
XI (1898); Letitia Humphreys Wrenshall, "Incantations<br />
and Popular Healing in Maryland and Pennsylvania," ibid.,<br />
XVI (1903) ; W. R. Smith, "Animals and Plants in Oklahoma<br />
Folk-Cures," Folk-Say, I Oklahoma Folk Lore<br />
Society, Norman, Oklahoma, 1929); Charles B. Wilson,<br />
"Folk Beliefs in the Ozark H<strong>ills</strong>," and L. S. M. Curtin,<br />
"Pioneer Medicine in New Mexico," ibid., II (1930).<br />
REGULAR DOCTORS AND MEDICAL EDUCA-<br />
TION: Additional sources of early Cincinnati-Lexington-<br />
Transylvania medical <strong>his</strong>tory are: Edward Deering<br />
Mansfield, Mem^oirs of the Life and Services of Daniel<br />
Drake, M. D. (Cincinnati, 1855), and the following writings<br />
of Daniel Drake: "An Anniversary Discourse on the<br />
State and Prospects of the Western Museum Society . . .<br />
."<br />
(Cincinnati, 1820); "An Inaugural Discourse on Medical<br />
Education ."<br />
. . . (Cincinnati, 1820); "An Introductory<br />
Lecture on the Necessity and Value of Professional Industry<br />
. . .<br />
." (Lexington, 1823); "Anniversary Address,<br />
Delivered to the School of Literature and the Arts at Cincinnati"<br />
(Cincinnati, 1814[]); "A Narrative of the Rise<br />
and Fall of the Medical College of Ohio" (Cincinnati,
319<br />
1822); "Discourse on the History, Character, and Prospects<br />
of the West . . .<br />
." (Cincinnati, 1834); "Remarks<br />
on the Importance of promoting Literary and Social Concert<br />
in the Valley of the Mississippi . . .<br />
." (Cincinnati,<br />
the only adequate work on the subject. A contem-<br />
1820); "Strictures on some of the Defects and Infirmities<br />
of . . . Students of Medicine" (Louisville, 1847); "War<br />
of Extermination" (Cincinnati, 1839).<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>his</strong>tory of medical education in the Chicago area is<br />
covered in Alfred <strong>The</strong>odore Andreas, History of Chicago<br />
(three volumes, Chicago, 1884-86); Zeuch, Medical Practice<br />
in Illinois; Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago<br />
(two volumes, New York, 1937) ; and Packard, A History<br />
of Medicine, II. For Indiana medical schools, see Indiana<br />
State Medical Society Transactions, 1874, and Burton D.<br />
Myers, "<strong>The</strong> History of Medical Education in Indiana,"<br />
Indiana History Bulletin, XIX, 3 (March, 1942). Dr.<br />
Myers's "Medical Education in Indiana," still in manuscript<br />
is<br />
porary study of medical education is presented in the work<br />
of N. S. Davis, History of Medical Education a7td Institutions<br />
in the United States (Chicago, 1851). <strong>The</strong> best treatment<br />
of dentistry is C. R. E. Koch, History of Dental<br />
Surgery (three volumes, Ft. Wayne, 1910).<br />
Two medical reference works very useful for study of<br />
the period prior to 1850 are Robley Dunglinson, A New<br />
Dictionary of Medical Science and Literature, containing<br />
a Concise Account of the Various Subjects and Terms;<br />
with the Synonymes in Different Languages and Formulae<br />
for Various Officinal and Empirical Preparations (two<br />
volumes, Boston, 1833), and the same author's revised<br />
American edition of the Cyclopoedia of Practical Medicine,<br />
edited by James Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, et. al. (four<br />
volumes, Philadelphia, 1845).<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>his</strong>tory of medical periodicals is summarized briefly<br />
in J. S. Billings, "Medical Journals of the United States,"<br />
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, C (January, 1879);<br />
the literature commitee reports in the American Medical<br />
Association Transactions, 1848-52; Daniel Drake, "Dis-
320<br />
course before the Medical <strong>Library</strong> Association"<br />
(Cincinnati,<br />
1852); and Victor Robinson, "<strong>The</strong> Early Medical<br />
Journals of America," Medical Life, XXXVI (1929), 553-<br />
606. Many of the western medical journals are listed in<br />
Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines<br />
(three volumes, New York and Cambridge, 1930, 1938);<br />
and Ralph Leslie Rusk, <strong>The</strong> Literature of the Middle Western<br />
Frontier (two volumes, New York, 1925).<br />
IRREGULARS: No attempt is made here to list the<br />
numerous Botanic medical books published or circulated<br />
in the Middle West. <strong>The</strong>re is no adequate check-list to<br />
Many previously unknown works constantly appear;<br />
date.<br />
on the other hand a number mentioned in the Botanic<br />
periodicals either did not materialize or else have long since<br />
disappeared. Important Botanic works not identified in<br />
the text are Eleazer G. House, <strong>The</strong> Botanic Family Friend:<br />
being a complete guide to the new system of Thomsonian<br />
medical practice (Boston, 1844); Abel Tennant, <strong>The</strong><br />
Vegetable Materia Medica and Practice of Medicine. Containing<br />
in detail <strong>his</strong> practical knowledge of American<br />
remedies, in curing diseases (Batavia, New York, 1837);<br />
Alfred N. Worthy, A Treatise on the Botanic <strong>The</strong>ory and<br />
Practice of Medicine, com^piled from variotis sources, with<br />
revisions and additions (Forsyth, Georgia, 1842); Meeker<br />
Day, <strong>The</strong> Improved American Family Physician or Sick<br />
Man's Guide to Health (New York, 1833); and Morris<br />
Mattson, <strong>The</strong> American Vegetable Practice, or a Netu and<br />
Improved Guide to Health Designed for the Use of Families<br />
(two volumes, Boston, 1841). A general view of the<br />
Botanies, as well as other irregulars, is given by Alexander<br />
Wilder, History of Medicine . . . tvith An Extended<br />
Account of the New Schools of the Healing Art in the<br />
Nineteenth Century, and especially a History of the American<br />
Eclectic Practice of Medicine, never before Published<br />
(New Sharon, Maine, 1901).<br />
Students of Botanic medicine are greatly indebted to<br />
the collections and publications of the Lloyd <strong>Library</strong> of
321<br />
Botany, Pharmacy and Materia Medica of Cincinnati,<br />
Ohio. J. U. and C. G. Lloyd pubHshed at Cincinnati,<br />
1884-87, a quarterly, Drugs and Medicines of North<br />
America. T<strong>his</strong> publication, with its comprehensive treatment<br />
of the more important medicinal plants of North<br />
America, was republished in the BiiUetin of the Lloyd<br />
<strong>Library</strong>y 29, Reproduction Series, 9 (1930). Of special<br />
interest are the articles on "Hydrastis Canadensis" (Yellow<br />
Root) and "Lobelia," also reproduced separately in the<br />
same series as Bulletins 10 and part two of 11 (1908 and<br />
1909), respectively. Other publications of the Lloyd<br />
<strong>Library</strong> Reproduction Series include: Benjamin Smith<br />
Barton, Collections for an Essay Towards a Materia Medica<br />
of the United States (Philadelphia, 1798 and 1804), Bulletin<br />
No. 1, Reproduction Series No. 1 (1900) ; Peter Smith,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Indian Doctor's Dispensatory Being Father Smith's<br />
Advice Respecting Diseases and <strong>The</strong>ir Cure (Cincinnati,<br />
1813), Bulletin No. 2, Reproduction Series No. 2 (1901);<br />
Johann David Schoepf, Materia Medica Americana Potissimum<br />
Regni Vegetabilis (Erlangen, 1787), Bulletin No. 6,<br />
Reproduction Series No. 3 (1903) ; Rev. Manasseh Cutler,<br />
An Account of Some of the Vegetable Productions, Naturally<br />
Growing in T<strong>his</strong> Part of America (Memoirs of the<br />
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1785), Bulletin<br />
No. 7, Reproduction Series, No. 4 (1903); William<br />
Downey, An Investigation of the Properties of the Sanguinaria<br />
Canadensis; or Puccoon (Eaken and Mecum,<br />
1803), and Jonathan Carver, Travels Through the Interior<br />
Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767 and 1768<br />
(London, 1768), Bulletin No. 9, Reproduction Series No. 5<br />
(1907); Samuel Thomson, Life and Medical Discoveries<br />
of Samuel Thomson (Boston, 1822) and a <strong>his</strong>tory of the<br />
Thomsonian Materia Medica, as shown in <strong>The</strong> Netu Guide<br />
to Health (1835), and the literature of that day. Bulletin<br />
No. 11, Reproduction Series No. 7 (1909) ;<br />
<strong>The</strong> Genesis of<br />
<strong>The</strong> American Materia Medica including a biographical<br />
sketch of "John Josselyn, Gent" and the medical and<br />
materia medica references in Josselyn's "New-Englands
322<br />
Rarities Discovered" (London, 1672) ^<br />
etc., and in <strong>his</strong> "Two<br />
Voyages to New-England" (London, 1672), with critical<br />
notes and comments by Harvey Wickes Felter, Bulletin<br />
No. 26, Reproduction Series No. 8 (1927).<br />
<strong>The</strong> most complete account of the Botanies is to be<br />
found in their own periodicals, many of them short-lived,<br />
which came into being during the period of popular acceptance<br />
of the movement. In addition to middle western publications,<br />
periodicals from eastern and southern Botanic<br />
centers circulated in the region. By articles copied from<br />
their exchanges or through original articles, editors in the<br />
older Botanic localities could keep followers informed of<br />
the progress of the cause in newer areas.<br />
Some of the non-western periodicals were: Thomsonian<br />
Spy (Manchester and Bennington, Vermont, April to<br />
December, 1838); Botanic Advocate and Journal of<br />
Health (Montpelier, 1836-39); Boston True Thomsonian<br />
(August, 1840-43); Thompsonian Advertiser (Boston,<br />
1844-45); Boston Thomsonian Medical and Physiological<br />
Journal (1845-46); Boston Thomsonian Manual and<br />
Lady's Companion (1835-45); Botanic Journal (Boston,<br />
February, 1836, to January, 1837) ; Botanic Advocate and<br />
Thomsonian Family Physician (New Haven, July, 1843,<br />
to May, 1844); Thomsonian Advocate or New Haven<br />
Botanic Advertiser (1836-37); Thomsonian Messenger<br />
(Norwich, Connecticut, 1841-45); Thomsonian Botanic<br />
Watchman (Albany, New York, January, 1834, to<br />
August, 1835); Philadelphia Thomsonian Sentinel and<br />
family Journal of Useful Knowledge (August, 1835, to<br />
June, 1844); Philadelphia Thomsonian Medical Journal<br />
(April, 1853-54); Botanic Medical Keformer and Home<br />
Physician (Philadelphia, May, 1840, to January, 1842);<br />
Thomsonian and Botanic Medical Advertiser (Baltimore,<br />
1831); Botanic Investigator (Vicksburg, Mississippi,<br />
March to October, 1835).<br />
In addition to middle western Botanic periodicals named<br />
in the text were the Botanic Luminary, 1836 to 1838,<br />
published at Saline and Adrian, Michigan; and the Thorn-
323<br />
sonian Defender, July, 1835, to Augiist, 1836, at Maryville,<br />
Tennessee. Largely Botanic, but defying absolute classification,<br />
was Anthony Hunn's monthly and semimonthly<br />
Medical Friend of the People, Harrodsburg, Kentucky,<br />
1829-30.<br />
Not so numerous, but none the less interesting, are publications<br />
of irregulars other than the Botanies, such as:<br />
Water-Cure Monthly (Glen Forest and Yellow Springs,<br />
Ohio, 1859-60); Phreno-Magnetic Society of Cincinnati<br />
Journal (1842); Buchanan's Journal of Man (Cincinnati<br />
and Boston, 1849-56); Dr. Alvah Curtis's Journal of<br />
Medical Reform (Cincinnati, 1854-55); Physio-Medical<br />
and Surgical Journal (Cincinnati, 1849-52) ; the Michigan<br />
Journal of Homeopathy etc. (November, 1848, to June,<br />
1854) ; Cincinnati Journal of Homeopathy, edited by Dr.<br />
Benjamin Ehrmann and others (1851-52); American<br />
Magazine of Homeopathy and Hydropathy, by Drs. Pulte<br />
and Gatchell (Cincinnati, 1852) ; and the Western Journal<br />
of Homeopathy (St. Louis, October, 1850, to February,<br />
1860).<br />
Files of the Homeopathic Times' Annual Retrospect of<br />
Homeopathic Literature (New York) are available for<br />
the years 1875 to 1897 in the New York PuWic <strong>Library</strong>.<br />
Homeopathy's growth is well covered in William Harvey<br />
King's History of Homeopathy and Its Institutions in<br />
America (four volumes, New York and Chicago, 1905).<br />
Wilder's History of Medicine also devotes considerable<br />
space to the subject.<br />
DRUGS: Development of drugs may be traced in the<br />
United States Pharmacopoeia, begun in 1820 by Lyman<br />
Spalding and continued down to the present day. An interesting<br />
work is<br />
Jacob Bigelow, A Treatise on the Materia<br />
Medica, Intended as A Sequel to the Pharmacopoeia of the<br />
United States (Boston, 1822). Additional information may<br />
be obtained from the American Journal of Pharmacy<br />
(1825—), the Proceedings of the American Pharmaceu-
324<br />
tical Association<br />
(1852-1911), and Drugs and Medicines<br />
of North America.<br />
Excellent biographical material is to be found in<br />
H. A. Kelly, Some American Medical Botanists (Troy,<br />
New York, 1914). More recent popular accounts are<br />
C. H. Lawall, <strong>The</strong> Curious Lore of Drugs and Medicine<br />
(New York, 1937), and M. M. Silverman, Magic in a<br />
Bottle (New York, 1941). Later <strong>his</strong>tory of patent medicines<br />
may be followed in Nostrums and Quackery (two<br />
volumes, edited by Arthur J. Cramp, Chicago, 1912,<br />
1921), the American Medical Association's reprints of a<br />
series of articles which appeared in Collier's in 1905.
A<br />
9<br />
INDEX<br />
Address on . . . Intellect (Caldwell), 304 (note 10)<br />
Agile: "Anti-Fever P<strong>ills</strong>," 107; folk <strong>cures</strong> and preventives, 82-83; kinds<br />
of, 17-20; prevalence, 10-14, 16; shakes for dumb ague, 111; symptoms,<br />
16-17<br />
Allentown Academy, 208<br />
Allopaths, 215<br />
American Eclectic Dispensatory (King), 190<br />
American Eclectic Medical Association, 197, 198<br />
American Health College, 25 S -23<br />
American Institute of Homeopathy, 210<br />
American Journal of Dental Science, 1 64<br />
American Journal of Medical Sciences, 22<br />
American Journal of Pharmacy, 323<br />
American Magazine of Homeopathy and Hydropathy, 211, 323<br />
American Medical Association, 139, 153, 197, 262<br />
American Medical Botany (Bigelow), 43<br />
American Medical College (Cincinnati), 194<br />
American Medical Journal, 19<br />
American Pharmaceutical Association, 323<br />
American Practice of Medicine (Beach), 190<br />
American Reform Medical Institute, 193<br />
Anaesthesia, 113-114<br />
Andrews, Edmund, 159<br />
Andrews, "William, 142<br />
Animalculae, 28<br />
"Anri-Fever P<strong>ills</strong>" of Sappington, 1 07, 2 8 5<br />
Asbury <strong>University</strong>, Medical Department (Indiana), 143<br />
Ashton, William A., 281-282, 302 (note 18)<br />
Attenuation, 204-205<br />
Autobiography (Caldwell), 304 (note 10)<br />
Autobiography (Gross), 151, 308-309<br />
Badianus Manuscript, 39, 293 (notes 3, 6)
326<br />
Baker, Alvah H., 134, 159<br />
Baldridge, A. H., 194<br />
Banckes's Herbal, 37, 315<br />
Barton, "William P., 44<br />
Baths, 220-221<br />
Beach, Wooster, 182-183, 188-191, 247<br />
Beaumont, William, 118, 297 (note 33)<br />
Benedict, H. T. N., 21<br />
Benezet, Anthony A., 22, 90<br />
Bennett, John C, 141<br />
"Best of Wives" (poem), 61-62<br />
Bigelow, Jacob, 43, 323<br />
Biggs, A., 302 (note 16)<br />
Billings, John Shaw, 298 (note 39)<br />
Bitters, 43<br />
Blackwell, Emily, 139<br />
Blaney, James Van Sandt, 159<br />
Bleeding, 70, 108-111, 212-213<br />
"Bletonism," 237<br />
Blisters, 111-112<br />
Bobbs, John S., 117, 143, 297 (note 30)<br />
"Bold Hives," 22<br />
Botanic hterature, 320-322<br />
Botanic Medical Reformer and Home Physician (Cooke), 182<br />
Botanic periodicals, non-western, 322<br />
Botanic Physician or Family Medical Adviser (Carter), 176<br />
Botanico-Medicalism, 186-188<br />
Botanico-Medical Recorder, 186, 301 (note 6)<br />
Botanico-Medical Reference Book . . . (Biggs), 302 (note 16)<br />
Botanies (See Samuel Thomson, Botanico-Medicalism, Eclecticism,<br />
Physio-Medicalism)<br />
Bradley, John H., 142<br />
Brainard, Daniel, 117, 138, 140<br />
Brief Discourse of . . . Suffocation of the Mother (Jordan), 70<br />
Brief Sketch of the Causes and Treatment of Disease . . . (Thomson) , 173<br />
Brown, John, 103<br />
Brown, Samuel, 23, 121, 129<br />
Buchan, William, 89-90, 294 (note 21)<br />
Buchanan, Joseph Rodes: Cincinnati Eclectic Institute, 194-195, 228;<br />
Journal of Man, 228, 323; hfe, 227-228; medical theory, 228-236;<br />
Outlines of Lectures on the Neurological System of Anthropology,<br />
228-237; Sketches of Discoveries in Neurology, 228; <strong>The</strong>rapeutic<br />
Sarcognomy, 228, 303 (note 8)<br />
Bush, James M<strong>ills</strong>, 118, 124<br />
Caesarian section, 116
327<br />
Caldwell, Charles, 123, 157, 223-224, 251; miscellaneous writings, 304<br />
(note 10)<br />
Calomel, 103-106<br />
Campbell, John Bimyan, 238-239<br />
Carter, J. E., 176<br />
Carter, Richard: <strong>cures</strong>, 62-71; life story, 47-56; poems, 51, 53, 54, 61,<br />
64, 65, 66, 71; sample "receipts," 58-61<br />
Castleman, Alfred L., 140<br />
"Catholepistemiad," 144<br />
Chicago Medical Journal, 159<br />
Childbirth: "grannies," 32; infant mortality, 31-33; puerperal fever,<br />
292 (note 12); "quilling," 32<br />
Chloroform, 114-115<br />
Cholera: botanic treatment, 29; causes, 28; prevalence and spread, 24-27,<br />
292 (notes 10, 11); symptoms, 27<br />
"Christian College," 141<br />
aha Symposia, 315<br />
Cinchona (Peruvian or Jesuit bark), 106<br />
Cincinnati College, Medical Department, 131-133<br />
Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, 134<br />
Cincinnati Eye Infirmary, 131, 146, 166<br />
Cincinnati Journal of Homeopathy, 211, 323<br />
Cincinnati Lancet and Clinic, 159<br />
Cincinnati Lancet and Observer, 159<br />
Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, 159<br />
Cincinnati Medical and Surgical News, 159<br />
Cincinnati Medical News, 159<br />
Clapp, Asahel, 12<br />
Cleaveland, C. H., 194-195<br />
Clericus, Esculapius, and Skepticus, vs. Col. M. Jewett . . . (Hersey), 248<br />
Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital, 211<br />
Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, 210-211<br />
Cleveland Medical College (Western Reserve), 134<br />
Clinic, 159<br />
"Cobbler Turned Doctor" (poem), 244-245<br />
College Journal of Medical Science, 194<br />
College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbus and Cincinnati), 186<br />
College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Upper Mississippi (Rock<br />
Island), 140<br />
Combe, George, 225-226<br />
Committee on Archives and Medical History (Ohio State Archaeological<br />
and Historical Society) ,310<br />
Cooke, John Esten, 103-104, 105, 123, 158<br />
Cooke, Thomas, 182<br />
Cooper, James, 73<br />
Compleat English Physician . . . (Salmon), 306 (note 15)
3<br />
328<br />
Course of Fifteen Lectures . . . (Robinson), 175-176, 249<br />
Correspondence (Caldwell and Fishback), 304 (note 10)<br />
Crawford, Jane Todd, 296 (note 28)<br />
Cross, James C, 123, 157<br />
Culbertson, J. C, 159<br />
Cullen, William, 103, 200<br />
Culpepper, Nicholas, 293 (note 7)<br />
Cups for bleeding, 109-1 10<br />
Curiosities of Common Water (Smith), 219<br />
Curtis, Alvah, 174, 178-179, 183-186, 323<br />
Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine (Gross), 109<br />
Daily, William, 18,73<br />
Davis, Nathan S., 139<br />
"Death on the Pale Horse," 1 1<br />
Delamater, John, 137-138<br />
Dental Register of the West, 164<br />
Dental societies, 165<br />
Dentistry, 161-166<br />
Devices for healing, 85-89, 277-278, 280-281, 303 (note 10)<br />
Dilution, 205-206<br />
Diseases (See Sickness in the West)<br />
Diseases of Children (Scudder), 196<br />
Diseases of the Interior Valley (Drake), 18, 132-133, 152-154<br />
Dog Oil, 63-64<br />
Domestic Medicine . . . (Matthews), 92<br />
Domestic Medicine; or the Family Physician . . . (Buchan), 89-90, 294<br />
(note 21)<br />
Domestic Medicine or Poor Man's Friend (Gunn), 93-95<br />
Drake, Daniel: and Dudley, 122, 298 (note 37); Cincinnati College,<br />
131; Diseases of the Interior Valley, 18, 132-133, 152-154; drug<br />
store, 266, 273; early life and education, 12 5-128; estimates of, 298<br />
(note 39); Eye Infirmary, 131, 146, 166; Jefferson appointment, 130;<br />
Louisville Medical Institute, 132; Medical College of Ohio, 130; Miami<br />
College, 130; miscellaneous writings, 318-319; on cholera, 27-29, 292<br />
(note 11); on eating and intemperance, 16; on milk sickness, 20; on<br />
preceptors, 119; on quacks and quackery, 181, 242-244; on Rafinesque,<br />
276; on spontaneous combustion, 16, 300 (note 64); on<br />
stethoscopes, 295 (note 1); on Swaim, 274; Pioneer Life in Kentucky,<br />
298-299 (note 40); Transylvania <strong>University</strong>, 122, 130; western journalism,<br />
155-157<br />
Drake, Isaac, 125-126, 299 (note 41)<br />
Drake, John, 126<br />
Drugs and Medicines of North America, 320<br />
Druggists and drug stores: purchasing trips, 263; supplies, 264-267<br />
Drugs, hterature on, 323-324
329<br />
Dudley, Benjamin W., 117, 121-124, 298 (note 37)<br />
Dunlap, Livingston, 143<br />
Eastman, Buell, 91-92, 160<br />
Eberle, John, 130, 151, 157, 158, 193<br />
Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, 189, 192-196, 210<br />
Eclectic Medical Journal, 195<br />
Eclectic Practice of Medicine (Scudder), 196<br />
Eclectic Repertory and Analytical Review, 116<br />
Eclecticism, 182-184, 188-198, 210<br />
Eclectic (Reformed) State Societies, 197-198<br />
Ehrmann, Benjamin, 209<br />
Elements of Materia Medica and Pharmacy (Murray), 110<br />
Elements of Pathological Anatomy (Gross), 151<br />
Encyclopedia of Vitapathic Practice (Campbell), 239<br />
English Physician— Enlarged, A Compleat Method of Physick<br />
(Culpepper), 293 (note 7)<br />
Epidemics (See Sickness in the West)<br />
"Essay on a New Principle" (Hahnemann), 200<br />
Ether, 114<br />
Experiments and Observations . . . (Beaumont), 118<br />
Eye troubles, 165-166<br />
Fads, in diet, 95-96<br />
Fair Examination of Medical Systems . . . (Curtis), 186<br />
Family Physician: Benezet, 22, 90; Daily, 18; Gunn, 22, 93-95;<br />
Thomson, 173-17^; Weyer, 91<br />
"Family Rights," 173<br />
Fevers (See Ague)<br />
Folk and Charm-Cures and Beliefs, 75-85, 293 (note 2), 316-318<br />
Four Books on . . . the Plants and Animals Found in New Spain<br />
(Ximinez), 293 (note 4)<br />
Foster, Robert L., 72<br />
Frampton, John, 37-39<br />
Franklin Medical College (St. Charles), 137<br />
"Friendly Botanic Societies," 173, 182<br />
Frost, R. K., 246-247<br />
Gall, Francois J., 223<br />
Gatchell, H. P., 210, 211<br />
Gerhard, WiUiam W., 22<br />
Goadby, Henry, 160<br />
Godman, John D., 15 5<br />
"God's Salve," 145<br />
Goforth, William, 23, 126-127<br />
Goldsmith, Alban (See Alban Gold Smith)
5<br />
330<br />
Goodhue, Josiah C, 138<br />
Graham, Sylvester, 222<br />
Grahamism, 222<br />
Gram, Hans Burch, 208<br />
Gross, Samuel, 109, 131, 151, 157-158, 223, 308, 309<br />
Gunn, John C, 22, 93-95<br />
Hahn, J. S., 219<br />
Hahnemann Medical College (Chicago), 215<br />
Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital (Philadelphia), 208<br />
Hahnemann, Samuel Christian Friedrich, 199-207<br />
Hale, Sarah Josepha, 96-97<br />
Hall, James, 1<br />
Hall, S.S., 216<br />
Harris, Chapin A., 1 64<br />
Harris, John, 163-164<br />
Healing Virtues of Cold Water (Hahn), 219<br />
Herbals, 37-40, 314-316; Aztec, 39, 315-316; Banckes's, 37, 315;<br />
Joyfull Newes (Monardus-Frampton), 38-39; Turner, 301<br />
Herbs: Bibliography, 314-316; Carter's use of, 5 8-61, 62, 66, 70;<br />
Colonial use of, 293-294 (note 7); Indian use of, 36; "Simple" remedies,<br />
40-42<br />
Hering, Constantine, 208-209<br />
Hernandez, Francesco, 293 (note 4)<br />
Hersey, Thomas, 174, 248, 301 (note 6)<br />
Hildreth, Samuel D., 291 (notes 1, 2)<br />
Hill, Banjamin, 210<br />
Holmes, Oliver W., 292 (note 12)<br />
Homeopathic Domestic Physician (Pulte) ,211<br />
Homeopathic Society of Cincinnati, 210, 211<br />
Homeopathic Times' Annual Retrospect of Homeopathic Literature, 323<br />
Homeopathy, 200-218<br />
Home Remedies (See Folk and Charm-Cures, Herbs, and Materia Medica)<br />
Hospitals, 144-150<br />
Howard, Horton, 174, 175-176, 179-180, 182-183, 301 (note 7)<br />
Howard, Horton J., 91, 301 (note 7)<br />
Humors, 103<br />
Hunn, Anthony, 248, 322<br />
Hurty, John N., 30<br />
Hydropathy, 218-222<br />
Hypo or Hypochondria, 33-34, 67-71, 72<br />
Illinois and Indiana Medical and Surgical Journal, 159<br />
Illinois College Medical School (Jacksonville), 138<br />
Illinois Medical and Surgical Journal, 159<br />
Illinois Medical Society, 258
331<br />
"Improved Botanies," 182<br />
Improved System of Botanic Medicine (Howard), 176<br />
"Incubus or Night-Mare," 72<br />
Independent Botanic Register, 301 (note 6)<br />
"Independent Thomsonian Botanic Society," 184<br />
Independent Thomsonians, 184-186<br />
Index-Catalog of the <strong>Library</strong> of the Surgeon General's Office, 3 07<br />
Indiana Central Medical College, 143<br />
Indiana State Medical Society, 255-257, 304 (note 18)<br />
Indiana <strong>University</strong>, 142<br />
Indian Doctor's Dispensatory (Smith), 45, 321<br />
Indian Doctor's Practice of Medicine (Daily), 18, 73<br />
Indian Doctor's Receipt Book (Cooper), 73<br />
Indian Guide to Health (Selman), 72<br />
Indian medicine, 36-37<br />
Iowa Medical Journal, 160<br />
Ishmaelite, 190<br />
"Isopathy," 208-209<br />
Itinerant dentists, 162-163<br />
Itinerant Physician, 160<br />
Jalap party, 296 (note 14)<br />
Jefferson Medical College, 130, 299 (note 45)<br />
Jewett, Col. M., 248<br />
Jones, L. E., 194, 195<br />
Jordan, Philip D., 291 (note 5), 307<br />
Jorden, E., 70<br />
Journal of Health, 96<br />
Journal of Medical Reform, 323<br />
Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 158<br />
Joyfull Newes, iS-i9<br />
Kansas City Review of Medicine and Surgery, 160<br />
Kemper College, 134<br />
Kentucky School of Medicine, 124<br />
Kentucky State Medical Society, 259<br />
Kilbourne, James, 191<br />
King, John, 190, 195<br />
Kirtland, Jared Potter, 134<br />
Knapp, Moses L., 142-143<br />
Kost, J., 176<br />
La Crosse Medical College, 141<br />
Laennec, Rene T. H., 113, 295 (note 1)<br />
.<br />
Lake Forest <strong>University</strong> (See Lind <strong>University</strong>)<br />
Lancaster Seminary, 128 ,^
332<br />
Lancet, 108, 296 (note 17)<br />
La Porte <strong>University</strong>, 142<br />
Larkey, Sanford V., 301 (note 4), 315<br />
"Laudable Pus," 145<br />
"Laughing Gas," 114, 139<br />
Lawson, Leonidas, 159<br />
Learned Quackery Exposed . . . (Thomson), 301 (note 5)<br />
Lectures on Medical Science (Curtis), 186<br />
Lectures on Midwifery and Diseases Peculiar to Women and Children<br />
(Curtis), 186<br />
Lectures on the Science of Human Health (Graham), 222<br />
Leeches, 109-110<br />
Legal regulation of licensing of <strong>doctors</strong>: Illinois, 257-258; Indiana,<br />
255-257; Kentucky, 258-259; Michigan, 260-261; Ohio, 252-255;<br />
Wisconsin, 261-262<br />
Lind <strong>University</strong>, 139<br />
Linton, M. L., 160<br />
Lithotomy, 117<br />
Literary and Botanical -Medical Institute of Ohio, 186<br />
"Living-In" apprenticeship, 119-120<br />
Lloyd <strong>Library</strong> Bulletins, 320-321<br />
Lobelia: in bitters, 43; Thomsonians' use of, 171-172<br />
Long Lost Friend or Book of Pow-Wows (Hohman), 317-318<br />
Louisville Medical Institute, 131-132, 299 (note 47)<br />
Louisville Review, 158<br />
"Lung Fever," 21<br />
McDowell, Ephraim, 115-116<br />
McDowell, Joseph Nash, 115, 131, 134-137, 157, 250<br />
"McDowell's College," 13 5<br />
Madison Medical College, 140<br />
Malaria (See Ague)<br />
Marks, Solon, 116<br />
Mason, H. D., 92<br />
Mason, James M., 157, 159<br />
Materia Medica: Botanico-Medicals', 187-188; colonial, 293-294 (note<br />
7); Eclectic, 190, 302 (note 18); saddle bag, 305 (note 5); "simples,"<br />
43-45; Thomsonians', 171, 177; uncertainty of Regulars regarding,<br />
104<br />
Matthews, William, 92<br />
Medical and Physical Memoirs (Caldwell), 304 (note 12)<br />
Medical College of Evansville, 143-144<br />
Medical College of Ohio, 105, 120, 129-131, 133-134, 145-146, 299<br />
(note 46)<br />
Medical Convention of Ohio, 253-254<br />
Medical Era, 193
333<br />
Medical Flora (Rafinesque), 44-45<br />
Medical Independent and Monthly Review of Medicine and Surgery, 160<br />
Medical Instructor or the Cause and Cure of Disorders (Preston), 176<br />
Medical Investigator, 20,186-188<br />
Medical Observer, 159<br />
Medical periodicals: irregulars, 321-323; non-western, 311-313; western,<br />
154-161<br />
Medical Repository, 1 5, 1 09, 1 5 5<br />
Medical schools, 120-144, 319<br />
Medical Society of Ohio, 252-253<br />
Medicine of Experience (Hahnemann), 201<br />
Meeker, Daniel "Old Death," 142<br />
Merrell, WilHam S., 190<br />
Mesmer, Anton, 226<br />
Mesmerism, 226-227<br />
Miami College, 130<br />
Michigan Journal of Homeopathy, 323<br />
Michigan Medical Society, 260-261<br />
"Michigan Rash," 21<br />
Miles, Charles, 174, 176<br />
Milking as exercise, 97<br />
Milk Sickness, 19-21, 291 (notes 5-7)<br />
Missouri Institute of Science, Medical Department, 13 5<br />
Missouri Medical and Surgical Journal, 160<br />
Mitchell, Samuel G., 217<br />
Mitchell, Thomas D., 27, 130, 158, 244-245, 251<br />
Monardus, Nicholas, 37-39<br />
Moorhead, John, 105, 130-131, 158<br />
Morrow, Thomas Vaughan, 189, 192, 194, 197<br />
Moxa, 112<br />
Murray, J., 110<br />
Mussey, Reuben D., 114-115<br />
National Dispensatory, 195<br />
National Eclectic Medical Association, 189, 197, 228<br />
Narrative (Thomson), 173-175<br />
Nervaura, 233-234<br />
New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 292 (note 12)<br />
New Guide or Family Physician (Thomson) , 173-174<br />
New . . . System of Medical Botanical Practice (Miles), 176<br />
Newton, R.S., 194-19 S<br />
North American Indian Doctor (Foster) , 72<br />
North American Medico-Chirurgical Review, 158<br />
Northwestern Journal of Homeopathia, 213<br />
Northwestern Medical and Surgical Journal, 159<br />
Northwest Medical Journal, 29
334<br />
Notes of Lectures (Eberle), 152<br />
Notes on ... a Phrenological Visit (Combe), 226<br />
Notices of Cincinnati (Drake), 128<br />
Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal, 159<br />
Ohio Medical College (See Medical College of Ohio)<br />
Ohio Medical Repository, 159<br />
Ohio Medical Repository of Original and Selected Intelligence, 157<br />
Ohio State Medical Society, 25 5<br />
"Old Hydrarg" (Dr. John Moorhead), 105<br />
On the <strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Medicine (Eberle), 193<br />
Organ of Sensibility, 234<br />
Organon der Rationellen Heilkunde (Hahnemann), 201, 302-303<br />
(note 2)<br />
Outlines of the Neurological System of Anthropology (Buchanan), 228<br />
Palmer, A. B., 159<br />
Parker, Willard, 131<br />
"Patent" Medicines: agents, 270-271; attacks on, 286-287; newspapers<br />
and, 268-270; <strong>pioneer</strong>s' use of, 271; sample advertising, 269, 272-285<br />
Pathology and <strong>The</strong>rapeutics (Cooke), 103<br />
Pelletier and Caventou, 106<br />
Peninsular and Independent Medical Journal, 160<br />
Peninsular Journal of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences, 159<br />
Perkins, Benjamin D., 86<br />
Perkins, Elisha, 85-87<br />
Perrine, Henry, 106<br />
Pests and varmints, 29-30<br />
Peter, Robert, 124<br />
Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences, 106-107<br />
Phrenology, 222-226<br />
Phreno-Magnetic Society of Cincinnati Journal, 323<br />
Pht<strong>his</strong>is (See Sickness in the West)<br />
Physio-Medical and Surgical Journal, 323<br />
Physio-Medical Institute, 186<br />
Physio-Medical Recorder, 186<br />
Physio-Medicalism, 184<br />
Physiopathic College of Ohio, 186<br />
Physician at Hand . . . (Smith), 91<br />
Pioneer doctor: drugs and materia medica, 105-106, 305 (note 5) ; equipment,<br />
99-100; fees and payment, 101-102; library, 150-151; theory<br />
and practice, 102-118<br />
Pioneer Life in Kentucky (Drake), 298-299 (note 40)<br />
Pitcher, Zana, 114, 144, 160<br />
Pollack, Simon, 166<br />
Pope, Charles A., 135
335<br />
"Pope's College," 135<br />
"Potency," 206<br />
Potter, Nathaniel, 22-23<br />
Powwowing (See Folk and Charm-Cures)<br />
Poyen, Charles, 226<br />
Practical Treatise of Foreign Bodies in the Air Passage (Gross), 151<br />
Practical Treatise on Diseases Peculiar to Women and Girls (Eastman),<br />
91-92<br />
Practice of Medicine according to the . . . Botanic Colleges (Kost), 176<br />
Preceptorial system of medical education, 119-120<br />
Preston, S. and C. A., 176<br />
Priesnitz, Vincent, 219<br />
Prince, David, 1 3 8<br />
Principles of Medicine (Scudder), 196<br />
"Psora," 207<br />
Psychometry, 234-2i6<br />
Psychrolousia, or the History of Cold Bathing . . ., 219<br />
Puerperal fever, 292 (note 12)<br />
"PuUikin," 161<br />
Pulmel, 275-276<br />
Pulmisf (Rafinesque), 274-275<br />
Pulte, Joseph v., 209, 211<br />
Ptire Materia Medica (Hahnemann), 201<br />
Pyles, Thomas, 301 (note 4), 315<br />
Quackery, Regulars' denunciation of, 241-246<br />
Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus, 307<br />
"Quilling" (See Childbirth)<br />
Quimby, Phineas Parkhurst, 227<br />
Quinine, 106-108<br />
Rafinesque-Schmaltz, Constantine Samuel, 44-45, 176, 223, 274-277<br />
Reed, Isaac, 141<br />
Reformed Botanies (See Eclecticism)<br />
Reformed Medical Academy of New York, 190-191<br />
Reformed Medical School of Cincinnati, 192<br />
Reformed Medical Society of the United States, 191<br />
Regulation of <strong>doctors</strong> (See Legal regulation)<br />
"Resurrectionists," 123, 13 8, 250-251, 304 (note 11)<br />
Richards, George W., 137-138<br />
Richmond, John, 116<br />
Ridgely, Frederick, 121<br />
Rives, Landon C, 131, 157<br />
Robinson, Samuel, 175-176, 249<br />
Rogers, Coleman, 128-129<br />
Rosa, Storm, 210
336<br />
Rosenstein, I. G., 211-213<br />
Rush, Benjamin, 103, 139<br />
Rush Medical College, 138-140, 216, 300 (note 5 5)<br />
St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, 160<br />
St. Louis <strong>University</strong>, Medical Department, 13 5<br />
St. Martin, Alexis, 118<br />
Salmon, William, 276, 306 (note 15)<br />
Sappington, John, 107<br />
Sassafras, 38-39<br />
Scudder, John M., 196<br />
Sellman, John, 111<br />
Selman, S. H., 71-72<br />
Seton, 90, 112<br />
Shew, Joel, 219-221<br />
Shipman, George Elias, 213-214<br />
"Short Growth," 76<br />
Shotwell, John T., 158, 250<br />
Sickness in the West: early accounts of, 9-11; epidemics and occurrences,<br />
11-29; explanations of, 15-16; newspaper accounts of, 14-15<br />
Simples (See Herbs and Materia Medica)<br />
Sketches of Buchanan's Discoveries in Neurology, 228<br />
Slack, Elijah, 128-129, 130<br />
"Slows" (See Milk Sickness)<br />
Smallpox (See Sickness in the West, Vaccination)<br />
Smith, Alban Gold, 131, 158, 298 (note 37)<br />
Smith, David Sheppard, 215, 216<br />
Smith, Jesse, 130<br />
Smith, John, 219<br />
Smith, Peter, 45-47, 321<br />
Smith, W., 91<br />
Snakes: prevalence, 30; snake bite remedies, 42, 78<br />
"Society for the Suppression of Eating," 222<br />
Spalding, Lyman, 323<br />
Spontaneous combustion, 16, 300 (note 64)<br />
Spurzheim, John G., 223-225<br />
Starling Medical College, 134<br />
State <strong>University</strong> of Iowa, Medical Department, 140<br />
Staughton, James M., 157, 158<br />
Stethoscope, 99, 295 (note 1)<br />
Sturm, Wilhelm, 209<br />
Sulton V. Facey, 261<br />
Surgery, 115-118<br />
Swaim, "Dr.," 274<br />
Sydenham, Thomas, 103<br />
Symptoms and Treatment of All Diseases (Mason), 92
337<br />
System of Surgery (Gross), 151<br />
Systematic Treatise, on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley<br />
(Drake), 18, 132-133, 152-154<br />
Taylor, James, 1 64- 165<br />
Telescope, 190<br />
Temple, John Taylor, 216<br />
"Ten and Ten," 92<br />
"Tetotum Eclecticum," 87<br />
<strong>The</strong>ory and Practice of Homeopathy (Rosenstein), 211-213<br />
<strong>The</strong>ory and Treatment of Fevers (Sappington), 107<br />
<strong>The</strong>rapeutic Sarcognomy, 232-236<br />
<strong>The</strong>rapeutic Sarcognomy (Buchanan), 228, 303 (note 8)<br />
Thomson, Charles, 174<br />
Thomson, Samuel: Brief Sketch of Causes and Treatment of Disease . , .,<br />
173; early Hfe, 169-170; Learned Quackery Exposed, 301 (note 5);<br />
letter to Frost, 247; Narrative, 173-174, 321; Neiu Guide, 173-174,<br />
321; patents, 172, 183; procedure for steaming, 171-172; theory of<br />
medicine, 170-171<br />
Thomsonian <strong>cures</strong>, 177-178<br />
Thomsonian diploma, 173-174<br />
Thomsonian Recorder, or Impartial Advocate, 174, 186, 301 (note 6)<br />
Thomsonianism, 169-184; 320-322<br />
Thomsonians' popularity, 178-181<br />
Tomato as medicine, 282-283<br />
"Tooth-Drawer," 163<br />
"Tractors," Perkins's Patent, 8 5-87<br />
"Transudation," 219-220<br />
Transylvania Journal of Medicine and the Associate Sciences, 15 8<br />
Transylvania <strong>University</strong>, 120-124<br />
Traveller's Pocket Medical Guide (Anon.), 91<br />
Treatise on Chronic Diseases (Hahnemann), 203<br />
"Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest . .<br />
." (Laennec), 295 (note 1)<br />
Treatise on the Materia Medica . . . (Bigelow), 323<br />
Treatise on the Practice of Medicine (Eberle), 151<br />
"Trembles" (See Milk Sickness)<br />
Triturition (See Dilution)<br />
True Thomsonians, 184<br />
Turner, William, 301 (note 4)<br />
Typhoid, 22<br />
United States Pharmacopoeia, 323<br />
"United States Thomsonian Convention," 182<br />
United States Thomsonian Society, 184<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Cincinnati, Medical Department, 134<br />
"<strong>University</strong> of Indiana," 141
338<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Louisville, 124<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Michigan, 144, 194, 216-217<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Missouri, Medical Department, 13 5<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Pennsylvania, 128, 132-133<br />
Urine Baths, 294 (note 8)<br />
^<br />
Vaccination, 23-24, 292 (note 9)<br />
Valuable Vegetable Medical Prescription (Carter), 47<br />
Vegetable Materia Medica of the United States (Barton), 44<br />
Vincennes <strong>University</strong>, 141-142<br />
"Vita," 238<br />
Vitapathy, 238-239<br />
Water Cure (See Hydropathy)<br />
Water Cure Jojcrnal and Herald of Reform, 221<br />
Wafer Cure for Ladies, 221<br />
Water Cure Manual, 221<br />
Water Cure Monthly, 323<br />
"Water girdle," 220<br />
Water witching, 237<br />
"Wedding Night, On a" (poem), 66-67<br />
Welch, William H., 113<br />
Western College of Homeopathy, 211<br />
Western Institute of Homeopathy, 214<br />
Western Journal of Homeopathy, 323<br />
Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 158<br />
Western Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences, 157<br />
Western Lancet, 159<br />
Western Medical and Physical Journal, 157<br />
Western Medical Gazette, 158<br />
Western Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine, 158<br />
Western Quarterly Reporter of Medical, Surgical and Natural Science,<br />
155<br />
Western Reserve (See Cleveland Medical College)<br />
"Wet-Sheet" and "Wet-Dress," 111, 220<br />
Weyer, A., 91<br />
Wilcox (printer), 91<br />
Willoughby College, Medical Department, 134-141<br />
Wilsey, Ferdinand L., 208<br />
Wisconsin Medical College, 140<br />
Wisconsin Territory Medical Society, 261-262<br />
Wolcott, ErastusB., 116, 141, 297 (note 30)<br />
Woman's Medical Guide (Pulte), 211<br />
Worthington Reformed Medical College, 191-192<br />
Wright, Guy W., 157<br />
Wright, M.B., 114-115
339<br />
Xlminez, Francisco, 293 (note 4)<br />
"Yarb" and Root (See Herbs)<br />
Yandell, Lunsford P., 107, 114, 123, 158<br />
Zootes, 237
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